PORTSMOUTH, Ohio (WSAZ) – We are already starting to see posters at companies across the Tri-State that advertise “just the exact change.”
This is another unforeseen complication of the COVID-19 pandemic. During many orders to stay home, few people spent the change in their wallet.
The federal government says that the coins are available, but due to the coronavirus that closes many companies, they do not circulate as banks and companies need it.
“We have to turn down coin collectors because we have businesses that need that coin now,” said Lee Powell, president and CEO of the Desco Federal Credit Union in Portsmouth.
Check your piggy banks, check your wallets, because the coins you have been carrying are now in high demand.
“The coins are out there,” said Powell. “But they’re in people’s ashtrays and sofas and they’re just not being recirculated.”
Powell says that thanks to the closings associated with COVID-19, the change that normally flows through companies is wearing thin.
“Several coin trading businesses were not open or offering limited hours and one interesting comment was the laundry,” Powell said.
The shortage is so severe, according to Powell, that banks receive only part of the change they normally request from the Federal Reserve. This means that those same banks are limited in what they can give to companies and to you.
The effects of scarcity do not end there. Signs are being posted in Barboursville and South Charleston, requesting that customers paying in cash use the exact exchange.
The next time you go to the store, if you don’t use a card or don’t make an exact change, you may need to round up.
In a letter to financial institutions, the Federal Reserve says the supply problem is temporary. When banks were first closed due to COVID-19, the U.S. Mint, which produces U.S. currency, slowed production.
“Typically, people deposit coins at the ATM counter at financial institutions,” Powell said. “If you try to put them in a tube when they go up, they are too heavy to go through the tube system or, in the worst case, they go to the middle of the tube system and get stuck, and we have to close down a road and catch the thing. “
Many companies and consumers say they see more plastic being used to pay for products, just another reason fewer coins are being passed.
“I am a card person. When I buy, it’s usually with invoices, I rarely use change. ”
Debbie works at a local bakery and says they use more rooms.
The Federal Reserve has issued a statement to banks indicating that currency allocations to banks, credit unions and other depository institutions will be reduced by 40 percent for the time being.
As bank lobbyists must reopen, they are encouraging customers to exchange their currencies for cash.
If you go shopping, try spending some of that loose coin that weighs in your wallet.
“You are not going to earn much interest in this environment, but at least you will earn a few pennies and you will be helping your fellow consumers and businesses,” Powell said.
The Federal Reserve says they are now bringing together industry leaders and creating a limited-time United States Coins Task Force. They say the group will identify, implement and promote actions to help limit disruptions to the normal circulation of coins.
Powell, meanwhile, says his credit unions have stopped selling coins to the Federal Reserve, to keep the change in the hands of customers.
“Everything we receive we have put away and made sure we have specifically assigned to those member businesses,” Powell said.
It’s a change you can trust, at least for now.
At the moment, a penny for your thoughts may be harder to come by.
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