The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many shortages, and changes in Americans behavior in 2020, and 2021. During your shopping at your local supermarket or small business, you may have noticed a sign that reads, “Due to a National Shortage, Please Use Exact Change, or Pay With a Debit/Credit Card.”
I have recently told cashiers to keep the change if the amount of change due back to me is a dime or less. When the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says, “the flow of coins through the economy has kinda stopped,” you know there is a legitimate concern.
The Federal Reserve estimates that there should be about $48 billion in coinage alone in circulation. But many of us have those coins in a jar in our homes, and are both reluctant to hand them in, and to spend them.
Part of the reason for the shortage is that some fear catching the virus from touching coins or bills. But most scientists believe that the only way to acquire COVID-19 from a contaminated surface, which could be a bill or coin although highly unlikely, is by touching it with your hands and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes.
That’s not to say that US Dollars aren’t ‘filthy.’ Most dollar bills in circulation have many microorganisms and other bacteria, and many also have traces of cocaine on them.
The problem is that the lack of currency and coins in our economy is making it more difficult for small business to operate. Most consumers are using debit-credit cards for their spending.
The lack of coins in circulation will certainly revisit the conversation about eliminating the penny from circulation. The US Mint reported in 2018 that it costs them $1.78 to make every penny. In 2019, the U.S. Mint made 7.04 billion pennies, costing taxpayers $145 million.
The American consumer is very picky when it comes to their currency. An effort to introduce the $1 Coin in 2013 failed, when Amercians didn’t want to use them. The like their ‘dirty’ dollar bills instead. There is a stockpile of those $1 coins in the Federal Reserve, totalling $1.4 Billion dollars.
