Beech Tree News Network

The Covid-19 pandemic has had far reaching affects-beyond the health of those who have contracted the virus. Many businesses have suffered as restrictions have had them closed or heavily constrained. Now, as businesses have begun to reopen under at least slightly normal circumstances, they face a shortage of coins.

Concerned for the safety of its employees, the US Mint produced fewer coins this spring. However, research suggests a bigger issue is distribution.

During lockdown, many bank lobbies were closed, leaving customers unable to take in coins to cash in for paper bills. And, even though there are coin sorting machines in many retail stores, people were getting out less all together, using drive-up and delivery shopping services and other socially distanced options of doing business and running errands.

Now that the country is reopening, the Federal Reserve is restricting how much coin can be ordered because of the shortage. How has this affected banks in Butler County?

Jason Jones, Chief Operating Officer at Morgantown Bank and Trust (MBT) explains that the Federal Reserve has restricted every bank in the country in a “…customized manner for each bank. For example, we can only order $1000 in boxed quarters per week for our entire bank (all branches).  We would typically order 5-6,000 per week.”

This could be a potential issue for businesses often ordering coins from their bank. However, in MBT’s case, instead of bagging lose coins to sell to the Federal Reserve, as they would normally do, Jones says “we have put in place coin rolling machines and we are now rolling our own coin in order to keep our businesses taken care of.”

Jennifer Hammer, Market President at Limestone Bank Morgantown, states that although the bank, as with all banks, is limited in how much coin they can order from the Federal Reserve, “we are still allowing our customers to cash in their change by appointment or, if it is not too heavy, through the drive-thru.”  She adds, “our lobby will reopen on Monday July 13; however, we will continue our curbside banking services.”

Some folks seem to fear the coin shortage could lead to a bigger issue, like banks running out of money or businesses moving to stop accepting cash in favor of paying with a card or phone app. And, Jones, of MBT, speculates that if the shortage continues, he could see “merchants fixing their prices so that everything calculates to whole dollars to avoid the coin altogether.” However, he predicts, “as vending machines, car washes and just overall retail starts picking up, it should correct itself by the 3rd quarter.”

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