The Latest Shortage Due To COVID-19? Coins

We usually complain about having quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies. It seems no one wants to use them. I have a jar that I fill up with all of the change that I accumulate. The Federal Reserve recently announced that it is addressing a coinage shortage due to COVID-19.

According to the Federal Reserve's June 11 announcement;

"The COVID‐19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the supply chain and normal circulation patterns for U.S. coin. In the past few months, coin deposits from depository institutions to the Federal Reserve have declined significantly and the U.S. Mint’s production of coin also decreased due to measures put in place to protect its employees. Federal Reserve coin orders from depository institutions have begun to increase as regions reopen, resulting in the Federal Reserve’s coin inventory being reduced to below normal levels."

This basically means banks and perhaps some businesses are struggling with the reality there are fewer coins to make change. If they take cash...remember since COVID-19 many businesses are only taking contactless payments.

It's an odd problem for banks as a lot of financial institutions have taken out the change counting machines that people would use to deposit their excess pocket change.

The Federal Reserve is asking as a way to get more coins back in circulation that institutions should remove "barriers to consumer deposits of loose and rolled coins." Last Monday the Federal Reserve started pumping up the number of coins being minted, and also started to distribute "available supplies of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to depository institutions as a temporary measure."