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Coin Shortage?

diggin4clad

Elite Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2016
Messages
6,541
Location
Eastern Connecticut
The US mint has released its mintage figures for the year 2021. Adding the totals of the four major denominations.....pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, the total mintage for the year is 16.3 BILLION coins. Add that number to the MANY billions of coins produced in past years and I find it very hard to believe that a real coin shortage exists. :my2cents:
 
In times of crisis, people save their coins. During the civil war, fractional currency was issued because the silver coins were hoarded and people spent the paper money, which had no intrinsic value.

Now, we have other factors, such as "since a penny isn't worth anything, throw it in a jar rather than carry the darned things around". Unfortunately, the same really applies to just about any coinage now. The only reason I can think of to carry pennies is to tip bad waiters with them.

Also, it's just so much easier to use credit/debit cards.

-- Tom
 
In times of crisis, people save their coins. During the civil war, fractional currency was issued because the silver coins were hoarded and people spent the paper money, which had no intrinsic value.

Now, we have other factors, such as "since a penny isn't worth anything, throw it in a jar rather than carry the darned things around". Unfortunately, the same really applies to just about any coinage now. The only reason I can think of to carry pennies is to tip bad waiters with them.

Also, it's just so much easier to use credit/debit cards.

-- Tom

Yeah, I never carry cash anymore, nor do most people. I've also noticed if I clean out a park area these days, it just doesn't seem to replenish like in the past, as far as coins. There is always plenty of foil and pull tabs though. And then, don't get me started on the lifespan of a zincin, OMG!, what a year or two. :laughing:
I still enjoy this hobby, but I can't help but to think the glory days are behind us, at least for coin shooting. :?:
 
Like Tom stated, I rarely us cash anymore and pretty much never have coins in my pocket (unless I've put them there after digging them out of the ground). On the rare occasions I do end up with circulating coinage, it tends to lay around on a counter in the house or the center console of the car. My Parents are a good example, they have several large jars that they put their coinage in by denomination. Once a year, they turn it in and it becomes vacation spending money. I certainly think people are probably dropping a whole lot less of it now than they did in the past which probably doesn't bode well for us detectorists twenty, thirty, forty years down the road.
 
Now, we have other factors, such as "since a penny isn't worth anything, throw it in a jar rather than carry the darned things around". Unfortunately, the same really applies to just about any coinage now. The only reason I can think of to carry pennies is to tip bad waiters with them.

Also, it's just so much easier to use credit/debit cards.

-- Tom

Yep, this is the real issue right now, in my opinion. For me, I never carry change on a day to day basis or while shopping, with the sole exception being that I carry a few quarters, dimes, and nickels in my flight bag in case I need to feed a parking meter while I drive out for lunch/dinner while out on a trip - and I think the same coins have sat in that bag for a couple years now. I most often use plastic to pay for almost everything now, but when I do use cash, I pay with paper only, and any coin change I receive goes straight into a jar when I get home. In other words, I remove coins from the system, and never give back. Assuming I’m not unique, that’s a losing scenario for the mint no matter how much coinage gets released.

It used to be that I would use any change that I happened to have to attempt to make the cashier’s life easier…if my items rang up as $4.10, for example, I’d give them a 5 and a dime so they could just give me a $1 bill back and not count out 90 cents in coins - sadly, I found that often just completely baffled the cashier and melted their brain, so I gave up. :roll:
 
I hate to say it but I think you guys are correct. Most people don’t carry cash any more. I’m an exception to the rule. I don’t have credit cards and never have. If I don’t have the cash I don’t buy it. But I’m also one of those hoarders. I’ve collected coins since I’ve been a child. I have never spent a single penny, nickel, dime or quarter. I’ve kept them all. The future doesn’t look rose for coin shooting or a lot of things. We just have to enjoy what we have and make the best of it!
 
It used to be that I would use any change that I happened to have to attempt to make the cashier’s life easier…if my items rang up as $4.10, for example, I’d give them a 5 and a dime so they could just give me a $1 bill back and not count out 90 cents in coins - sadly, I found that often just completely baffled the cashier and melted their brain, so I gave up. :roll:

Ahhh, "The good old days", I used to do that on purpose. I guess it was funny at the time. Now looking back, it was kind of sad! :laughing:
 
I hate to say it but I think you guys are correct. Most people don’t carry cash any more. I’m an exception to the rule. I don’t have credit cards and never have. If I don’t have the cash I don’t buy it. But I’m also one of those hoarders. I’ve collected coins since I’ve been a child. I have never spent a single penny, nickel, dime or quarter. I’ve kept them all. The future doesn’t look rose for coin shooting or a lot of things. We just have to enjoy what we have and make the best of it!

You must have a barrel full of mercs and walkers.
 
You must have a barrel full of mercs and walkers.

I wish. I’m not quite that old. When I started collecting, silver was hard to find in circulation and I have just started detecting this summer. So no not piles of silver. I do have a truck load of clad. I’ve thought of seeding some fields with some of it. Maybe someone in the future will fine it?
 
I realize that a lot of people save coins in jars which has some effect on the number of coins in circulation. Though people have always done that, we haven't always had coin shortages......
 
..........I find it very hard to believe that a real coin shortage exists. :my2cents:

The coin shortage is referring to a shortage of coins that are in circulation. The mint can put more coins in circulation and the effect is temporary if people get them back in change, take them home, and keep them there. For example, parking meters, vending machines, and snack bar/concessions are ways coins get back to circulation, and back to banks, who then turn around and redistribute them to businesses. But, vending machine, parking meter, and concessions/snack bars have all been utilized less as a result of people working and learning from home.
 
I realize that a lot of people save coins in jars which has some effect on the number of coins in circulation. Though people have always done that, we haven't always had coin shortages......

The difference is that people used to have a reason to regularly dig into that jar, or nightstand, or car ashtray and spend some of those coins. Cherry pick some quarters for the vending machine at work, but now they work from home. The parking meter for the meeting with a client, but now they meet virtually. Or, drive to McDonalds to get lunch and count out exact change from the ashtray while waiting in the drive-thru, but now people are ordering and paying for delivery or pick up on an app.

The difference of a few dollars in change per person never making it back out of the coin jar adds up on a large population scale.
 
The difference is that people used to have a reason to regularly dig into that jar, or nightstand, or car ashtray and spend some of those coins. Cherry pick some quarters for the vending machine at work, but now they work from home. The parking meter for the meeting with a client, but now they meet virtually. Or, drive to McDonalds to get lunch and count out exact change from the ashtray while waiting in the drive-thru, but now people are ordering and paying for delivery or pick up on an app.

The difference of a few dollars in change per person never making it back out of the coin jar adds up on a large population scale.

If so many people are using apps or credit cards then there's less need for coins which would create a coin surplus.
 
Plus, some parking meters and many vending machines now accept plastic. Less and less coinage circulating. Maybe to help with the trouble Levi-Strauss should start making all jeans with a quarter sized hole at the bottom of the pocket. That way, the coinage will circulate right down to the ground where us detectorists can have at it:laughing:
 
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