Shortage of coins prompts request
Group wants citizens to help boost circulation
WASHINGTON – Got a dime you can spare? Coins are in short supply – again.
Retailers, laundromats and other businesses that rely on coins want Americans to empty their piggy banks and look under couch cushions for extra change and “get coin moving.”
A group of trade associations that represent individual businesses including banks, retail outlets, truck stops, grocery stores and more is asking the Treasury Department for more help persuading Americans to get coins back in circulation.
The consequences of the circulation slowdown hit people who don’t have an ability to pay for items electronically, they say.
“If retailers are not able to offer change for cash purchases consumers who rely on cash will be vulnerable,” the associations said in a letter to Treasury.
For example, people who do their laundry at coin laundromats could have a harder time finding change to wash their clothes. And on a larger scale, people who don’t have cash access aren’t able to patronize certain card-only businesses.
It’s not a coin shortage America faces, but a lack of circulation.
“We can’t print our way out of this problem,” said Austen Jensen, a senior vice president for government affairs at the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
Jensen’s group, along with the American Bankers Association, National Association of Convenience Stores and National Grocers Association, is trying to meet consumer demand and wants a new public campaign to increase coin circulation.
Jensen said his group is also encouraging member retailers to find creative ways to deal with the shortage of coins, including rounding up purchases for charity promotions. And he says businesses with multiple locations could send coins from one store to another.
This is not the first time during the pandemic that the issue of low coin circulation has arisen.
The coronavirus disrupted consumers’ buying habits and shifted purchases largely to plastic cards to such an extent that in July 2020, the Federal Reserve restricted coin orders by financial institutions.
Coin deposit volumes began to increase gradually starting in the summer of 2020, but businesses say the problem has come up again as people have stopped using coins and have stuck to plastic cards.
The issue has had the biggest impact on people who don’t have bank accounts.
An estimated 22% of U.S. Americans were “unbanked” or “underbanked” in 2019, according to the Federal Reserve.