A Focus on Coins in the Cash Cycle

Without coins you cannot receive change when you pay with a banknote. Although banknotes receive most attention in the cash cycle, April’s MDC webinar reminded people why that is a mistake.

Kathleen Young, Senior Vice President of FedCash Business Operations for the Federal Reserve System’s Cash Product Office (CPO), and Jim Douthitt, Head of Treasury at Coinstar, gave two different viewpoints of coins in the US in the last 12 months. David Hensley, from Enryo consulting, added a UK perspective.

Coinstar’s perspective

Jim started by explaining that the US has an unusually large proportion of its population who rely on cash for payments. 6.5% of households are unbanked and 18.7% underbanked, together 32.6 million American households. These households are significant users of Coinstar’s coin services.