Coin, Coin Everywhere and not a Cent to Spend

At the ICCOS Americas online conference there was, unusually, a coin panel, ‘Coin, coin everywhere and not a cent to spend.’ The focus was on what had happened to coins in the US in the pandemic, why a Coin Task Force had had to be set up and what the situation is now. The panel consisted of Kathleen Young from the Federal Reserve Cash Services Product Office, Ashley Yayock from Walmart, Thomas Strauser from Loomis, JR Davis from Davis Bankcorp and Linda Sherry from National Priorities Consumer Council.

Kathleen Young got to the heart of the problem with her explanation that usually for every 10 coins issued in the US, eight are returned. By the end of May this year only 4 and half came back. This is not a coin ‘shortage’, but a circulation problem.