While it appears the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a nationwide shortage of coins, it’s something that hasn’t exactly hit West Tennessee – yet.
“There were a few weeks that the fed limited your coin shipments, so we did limit … we tried to ration our coins to our customers,” Monte Jones said, “But they really never came up short with their orders, and now the fed is allowing us to order what we need.”
Monte Jones is the community president of Commercial Bank & Trust Company in Jackson.
“There are plenty of coins, but, I think generally, across the U.S., there is concern about coins, and I think people – if they would bring their coins into the bank – let us count the coins and get them back into circulation.
“But I do think the new coins … that’s picked back up, and that has helped the situation, too.”
Jeff Lewis – community market president, at FirstBank in Lexington, is not seeing a rush on coins, but precautions are in place.
“We’re not in a big pinch, so far, but the word is out there that things could get worse,” Lewis said, “We are encouraging our customers to use their debit cards when possible … that will help alleviate the shortage of change.”
Lewis said merchants are asked not to take any more change than necessary.
“We are getting shipments of change, right now, but it’s the word that’s gotten out, and some people are panicking – overreacting – because there’s not necessarily a shortage.”
The concensus is businesses that primarily take coins – laundromats, vending machines and car washes – slowed or shutdown since the pandemic began.
For some banks, there is a surplus of coins.
“We’re hearing a lot about (shortage), but we have some customers who are bringing us more coins than we know what to do with,” said Curtis Mansfield – Market president – Jackson, Henderson & Friendship, FirstBank, “Some customers literally bring in washtubs full of coins, and we have a number of customers who own vending machines, so we haven’t had to order coins from the fed.”
According to an article in ABA (American Bankers Association) Daily Newsbytes, officials with the U.S. Mint said “Precautions taken to slow the spread of the virus have resulted in reduced retail sales activity and significantly decreased deposits from third-party coin processors, resulting in increased orders for newly minted coins … Simply put, there is an adequate amount of coins in the economy, but the slowed pace of circulation has meant that sufficient quantities of coins are sometimes not readily available where needed.”
Chris Graham, president Graham Snack Foods, Inc., in Jackson, said the bank where his company handles its financial transactions notified him about two months ago about an anticipated coin shortage.
“Graham Snack Foods collects change from our vending machines, but we also have to feed change back into our machines, so that they will always make correct change to the consumer,” Graham said, “The problem for us has been mostly with dimes and nickels. Dimes especially seem to be in short supply, and we are just doing our best to work through the situation.
“We probably use more dimes than we collect, so we have to buy dimes – and nickels – for our machines to function correctly.”
Graham said his company has equipped most of its vending machines to accept debit/credit cards and other cashless such as Apple Pay.
“More of our customers are now using cashless forms of payment,” Graham said, “We do anticipate that this coin shortage is temporary, and we are looking forward to the day that the banking system can get re-supplied with change which is still needed for the Main Street economy to function.”
David Thomas, Twitter – @DavidThomasWNWS
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