Latest / Stuff You Should Know / Short Stuff: The Great American Coin Shortage of 2020

Transcript

Short Stuff: The Great American Coin Shortage of 2020 · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short stuff on Josh, there's Chuck.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Jerry's over there. Let's get going. This is short stuff
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: about shortages of coins. Shortly. Yeah, hey, can you spare
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: some change? Uh? No? Why not? Um? What was it?
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I can't remember who said? Think the line is? Haven't
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: your head? Is a coin shortage? Okay, let's try this again. Hey,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Mr Keney spares some change? No? Why not? Haven't you heard?
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: There's a what line? Coin shortage? There's a coin shortage?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: And that summarizes our TV show success quite nicely, and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: scene and scene, so we're there. Really is a coin shortage?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Or dramatization was a real one or based on real life,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: a true story in the United States. Um our listeners
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: in Australia and New Zealand and UK and Germany who
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: knew you know, Um, did we hear from a German?
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Is that what happened? Uh? They said, yes, we're listening
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: to you in Germany, okay, And they said cryptically and watching.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: And what what some of you guys who are in
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: America might not realize is that if you went into
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: a store, the stores that are open right now during
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the pandemic here in the United States, you might find
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: a sign that says, please pay with exact change or
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: use a credit card because we ain't got no change
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: for you, uh, if you need it. And it's actually
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: kind of becoming a bit of a problem and a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: conspiracy theory over here. Yeah, so there are coins out there. Um.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: The U. S. Treasury says that there were almost forty
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: eight billion dollars worth of coins in circulation in April
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of this year, which is about four million more than
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: last year. But the deal is is those those coins
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: aren't moving there. They got no movement going on like
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: they usually do for a few reasons. Obviously, when businesses
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: closing and banks sort of closing and reducing their hours,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: and things like arcades and laun dramats and public transit
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: where you use a lot of coins, and convenience stores,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: when all that stuff closes up, it's gonna put a
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: serious dentt in the coin flow. It is because I mean,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: all of these these businesses that are especially coin heavy, Um,
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: they they act as kind of like part of the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: circulatory system that moves coins through the economy. And if
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: they're not closed, meaning they're not accepting coins, you can't
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: let the coins pass through them, so instead they go
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: back home to people's houses, which is where a lot
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: of them are right now. Um. Also, simultaneous to that,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: Chuck the U s Mint was like, well, we don't
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: want to put our people at risk, so we're actually
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: gonna slow production and furlough a bunch of people because
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: we don't want them on the job giving COVID to
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: one another, which is kind of sensible. And then beyond that,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: even if you do have a business, a lot of
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: people are saying, you know, they want like contact lists,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: they don't want cash passing back and forth. They'll maybe
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: shove a credit card reader in your face from a
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: poll that it's attached to and they'll say, stick your
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: credit card in that. Um not doing a lot of
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: cash or asking for exact change. And again that just
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: means there are coins out there, they're just not flowing
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: through the economy like they normally do. Right, So for
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: all these reasons, there is an actual a coin shortage,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: not a coin shortage, and that they don't exist, but
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: a coin shortage, and that they're not flowing through like
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: they're supposed to. Like you were saying, which I mean,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: if you were, um, a thinking person you might buy
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: this time, have thought who cares? It doesn't matter, but
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: it does for a lot of reasons. And at first
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: is that UM. There are a lot of stores, kinds
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of stories like you said, UM transit, public transit UM,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: you know, the public transit store where you go to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: buy public transits and coins UM, and then laundromats. There
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: are certain kinds of businesses that heavily rely on the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: free and open flow of coinage UM for their businesses
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: to function. And if you go into one of those
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: businesses and they say you need to pay with exact change,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: is that okay? Some of their customers are gonna be like, no,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: it's not okay. I want I don't have exact change,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: and I want my change back. Some of those stores
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: have tried to get creative and have said, how about
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: rather than us give you change back, we donated on
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: your behalf to a charity, like you kind of round
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: up your bill to have some of that donated. That
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: makes sense, But if you're kind of going through hard times,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: which a lot of us are, you want that change back.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: So then some stores have said, okay, all right, we
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: don't actually have physical coins here to give you change,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: But we can give you a store gift card with
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that amount on it. How about that? And some customers said,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: that's fine, whatever, But I can't imag magine how much
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: of a dent in a store's efficiency. Stopping and adding
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: like thirty eight cents to a gift card for every
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: third customer who wants to pay with cash is doing
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: to to The stores in the United States that are,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: by the way, are already struggling because they have opened
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: up in this pandemic um simply because they need to
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: to keep the lights on. Yeah, or some stores are saying,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: how about in lieu of the thirty seven sins, I
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: compose a poem in which I integrate the words thirty
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: seven cents and I will sing it to you, right,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: or maybe it takes a lot of time. Maybe our
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: head cash, your Bucky will give you thirty eight cents
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: where the pot from his stash. I wonder what thirty
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: eight since where the pot looks like? I don't know.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Probably that's a lot, right, sure, from everything I've read.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Should we take a break? Yes, all right, we'll be
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: right back with more coin shortage. Well, now we're on
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the road, driving in your truck. Want to learn a
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: thing or two from Josh man Chuck and stuff you
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: should know. All right, all right, so we got a
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: coin shortage and ain't flowing. The National Grocer's Association and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: some other retail trade groups sent a letter to Jerome Powell,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the Fed Reserve chair and Steve how do you pronounce
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: that hard nucan the manuch? No, that's the mooch Scar
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Moucci that you're thinking of. Oh, that's right. Uh. He's
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: the Treasury Secretary. And they sent a letter in June saying, hey,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: you're rationing these coin shipments to the banks, and that's
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: really threatening our business because it's you know, we come
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: from a place of privilege to be able to sit
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: around a joke about this because I'm like, oh, I'll
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: just put everything on my m X because I get
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: sky miles that are now useless. But here's the deal.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: If you have a household income below twenty dollars, you
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: are paying for cash. Uh, you're paying for of your
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: transactions and cash. Right. This is why finally we reach
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: why it really actually matters, because there's a significant number
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: of Americans out there who depend on having cash handy.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Because the banks have said we don't think you're worthy
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of having a bank account, and the credit card companies
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: have said, we're not going to extend you any credit.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: So all you've got is cash. That's your only option.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And so if you aren't if the store is trying
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: to give you some some business or run around about
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: domint donating your thirty eight since the charity, no, you
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: probably want that thirty eight cents back, and not having
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that thirty eight cents in circulation is a big problem
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: for a large number of people. Yeah, here's a couple
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: of other stats that may be surprised zing if you
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: always just throw down your credit card. Uh, forty five
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: to sixty of sales at all grocery stores and comedian
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: stores or cash, and uh for ten dollars or less.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: About half of all transactions period in the US are
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: paid in cash if they're ten dollars or less. Yes.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: And also, I mean there's a plenty of like gas
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: stations and convenience stores out there that have us a
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: longstanding policy that you know, nothing under five dollars or
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: three dollars or whatever can be put on a card
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: because as credit cards piece can can really add up
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: for a store like that. Um So now they have
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: no choice. If they don't have change to give out,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: they have to take that credit card payment. So that's
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: dending their bottom line to the little um small business
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: owners as well. It's just a huge cluster that needs
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: to be fixed, Chuck. Yeah, and the fixed sort of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: there isn't a real fix right now because everything that's
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: going on. You can't just put some artificial You can't
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: just like flood the market with coins because the problem
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: is they're not flowing anyway. It's not that they aren't there.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: So the real solution is just eventually things will slowly
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: return to normal as far as coin circulation goes, just
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: like everything else returning to normal. Um. But they are
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: ramping up production of coins because they, I guess heard
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the letter and they don't want to short change the
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: banks at least, and I think the usual is a
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: billion coins a month. They're now producing one point two
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: billion coins a month at least in June, and then
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: one point three five billion a month for the rest
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: of the year. Yeah, which I mean that's a substantial
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: increase for sure. Yeah, um, because yeah that we're talking
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: about three hundred and fifty million additional coins a month
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: for the rest of that's a huge uptick, so they're
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: definitely responding, But it seems like what everybody's saying is, hey,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you with the coin jar and you're cupboard, like you're
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: you're the problem, Like go take your coin jar to
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the coin star. I think they um the FED actually
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: specifically aimed coin star as a place where you should
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: take your coins and trade them in for a gift
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: card or some cash or something like that. Or if
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: you don't want to pay whatever fee coin star um charges,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: you can actually go into the bank take your coins.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: They will be happy to see you for the first
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: time in their entire banking history showing up with a
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: jar full of coins, being like, can I have this
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: in exchange for some bills UM? That will help get
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: it back into circulation as well. Or you could just
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: start spending them like pay in coins um out of
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: your your coin jar that you have at home, reintroduce
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: it into the economy, in fact, is another way to
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: put it. Yeah, I can't remember when we talked about this,
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: but we talked about coins before and taking into the
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: bank and the fact that Emily and I when we
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: were first together and just broke as you could imagine,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: would go on change dates, because we would go to
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: that coin star machine and dump them in there. And
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I think that's when you said that you didn't do
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: coin star because of the fee. If I'm not mistaking,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the sounds like something I would say, Yeah, it was
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: a long time ago though, yeah, well still the same.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: It's it'll be etched on my tombstone. He wouldn't pay
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the fee. Um, So you can do something by spending coins.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: That's a big one. Um. And there's actually a hashtag
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: that this coin task force that got put together came
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: up with called get coin Moving, not even coins, get
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: coin Moving, brick love lamp. It's it's pretty bad. Um.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: And here's a little tidbit for you to chew on
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: while you're going through your coin jar um, trying to
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: figure out what you're gonna buy first with it. A
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: coin in the United States remains in circulation for up
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: to thirty years, So all those coins that are pumping
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: full of the economy with they're going to be around
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: for a while, whereas the paper bills that we have
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: usually only last about a year and a half. Wow,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: that's it for sure, stuff, chuck, don't you think I
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: think so? Well? The short Stuff says everybody Giddeah. Stuff
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: You Should Know is a production of I heart Radio's
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows. H