Time to empty out the piggy banks to help small businesses. Tennessee banks are asking consumers to deposit their spare change at their local bank or coin- cashing machines as the pandemic-related shutdowns has created a coin shortage.
When COVID-19 restrictions went into place, establishments like retail shops, bank branches, and laundromats—the typical places where coin enters society—closed, it significantly slowed the normal rate of coin circulation. Consumers then migrated to shopping online or, if in person, using debit and credit cards to avoid physical contact associated with using cash. The coins that they would have received in change were then not being circulated back into the system.
“In the beginning of 2020, more than 4 billion coins were deposited—or recirculated— each month,” said Colin Barrett, president and CEO of the Tennessee Bankers Association. “Those numbers dropped to less than 2 billion beginning in April.”