GREENSBORO, N.C. — Two shiny pennies caught my eye this week. They were minted in 2020. The U.S. Mint ramped up production in July. The Mint had cut production of coins due to staffing during the beginning of the COVID pandemic
The Mint can make 1.5 billion coins a month and is on track to make more coins this year than it has in the last 20 years. But get this, even with all that the Mint accounts for less than 20% of coin circulation.
Check out the Mint’s GIF. New coins go from the Mint to the Federal Reserve Banks and armored carriers. Then those coins hit the banks and retailers and they circulate between themselves and then of course consumers get into the circle. When the pandemic hit, consumers like me and you, bought stuff with our cards and not cash. Even now, a lot of folks don’t want to touch what other people touched and that means there’s a low circulation of coins.
The head of the U.S. Mint is asking you for your change and he's got a hashtag to go with it #getcoinmoving.
BEST WAYS TO IMPROVE COIN CIRCULATION
“It's not a coin supply problem, it's a circulation problem. You can help get coins moving by using exact change when you shop, taking them to financial institutions or coin kiosks. Every little bit helps,” said David Ryder.
And for those of you who are worried about catching something by using change, it's true, money is dirty. But it was before COVID.
So really you should have been using the hand sanitizer all this time.