Thanks to the COVID pandemic, there was a rumor going around about a coin shortage. Grocery stores, convenience stores, and a host of other retailers posted signs asking for coins and notifying the public that they could not make change. As it turns out, there was no shortage at all. The real problem was simply weak circulation. At the time, there was approximately $48.5 billion in coin already in circulation, but much of it was sitting dormant inside America’s 128 million households while everyone was on lockdown. Returning coins into circulation by spending them, depositing them, or exchanging them at banks makes a meaningful difference for the millions of Americans and businesses who rely on coins to support cash transactions. That’s why the U.S. Coin Task Force began making announcements to encourage Americans to spend their money and get coins moving again. Simply put, today there's an adequate amount of coins in the economy, and it will stay that way as long as people continue circulating them by spending.
