How long will the Coin Shortage last?

mleblanc138

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Feb 24, 2011
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Hello, I am a returning Coin Hunter from the 2011 to 2013 time frame. I have picked up the hobby again, sort of due to hearing about people cashing in valuable collections at banks due to Covid as well as the rumor of a Reddit Silver short squeeze causing me to think about all that time I spent years ago searching, giving me the itch again.

Almost immediately I discovered that not only are some banks no lobby, but a lot of banks now have a limit on coins they can sell, particularly to non customers. This limits me to asking for loose Halves or rolls of Halves at all the banks I care to drag myself to. I'm wondering for how much longer this coin shortage will last. My guess is for most or all of 2021, due to the vaccine needing to be distributed and for people to feel safe going to stores and using physical money again.
 

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BigWaveDave

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Nov 22, 2013
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I’m of the belief that there is no coin shortage
COVID is just an excuse for banks to not have to shuttle rolls of coins as often as they used to
 

McKinney_5900

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Jul 30, 2010
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I’m of the belief that there is no coin shortage
COVID is just an excuse for banks to not have to shuttle rolls of coins as often as they used to

I am beginning to think the same. I've told my credit union that I have around 80 lbs of loose coins ever since this "shortage" was announced, and all I want is them to take them unrolled and put the proceeds in my account, no fee and them not needing to give me any reward. They keep insisting on them being rolled, plus they was me to pay a 5% fee. If there was an actual shortage, you'd think the customer wouldn't have hoops to jump through.
 

Tommybuckets

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I hate to say but if you didn't stack a big stack back then its waaaay harder now. I started then myself when the high prices hooked my interest and I couldn't find enough with the detector. At first I couldn't find anything and I thought crh was a hoax. When the price receded people didn't care as much and dumped it on purpose or by accident. As the price declined my finds went up. There were less crh-ers since the price was down and there were more dumps since people weren't interested. Commerce was good and businesses and people were always making deposits and dumping the coins in the banks machines to be rerolled and distributed on site. Now there are a confluence of factors working against us. There are no coin machines at the banks. People have to roll them so they see an odd silver coin and keep it. Coinstars reject most silver so we won't see many productive MWR from that avenue. Corporate is closing the banks, driving banking to the digital domain Plus you've got to figure a bored teller with a smart phone can learn everything they need to know about crh with a few clicks and an hour of free time. In short I think the coin shortage is the new normal. CRH may return in some limited fashoin when and if the price of silver plummets but no clue when that will happen. For now when they say there's a shortage its French for " f*ck off buddy don't waste our time."
 

eyemustdigtreasure

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Coin Shortage...?!
Why, I take that Personally, since I hoard
all the coinage I find...!
Maybe I should FLOOD The Market with all of my CLAD...! Eh???
 

CJ9

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Dec 15, 2018
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Hello, I am a returning Coin Hunter from the 2011 to 2013 time frame. I have picked up the hobby again, sort of due to hearing about people cashing in valuable collections at banks due to Covid as well as the rumor of a Reddit Silver short squeeze causing me to think about all that time I spent years ago searching, giving me the itch again.

Almost immediately I discovered that not only are some banks no lobby, but a lot of banks now have a limit on coins they can sell, particularly to non customers. This limits me to asking for loose Halves or rolls of Halves at all the banks I care to drag myself to. I'm wondering for how much longer this coin shortage will last. My guess is for most or all of 2021, due to the vaccine needing to be distributed and for people to feel safe going to stores and using physical money again.

Shortage is over. Able to get plenty of coins, although more MWR recently. Also, alot of MWR solid 2020s, which tells you mint produced plenty after news of shortage.
 

Ohiogoldfever

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Oct 15, 2020
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I don’t really believe in the shortage. At least if there was or is a shortage it’s being done on purpose. The Fed has been minting coins for decades. All the sudden they can’t keep up, or stop for some unknown reason. If anything it’s likely as an integral part of the plan to remove cash from our system. I mean making physical money must really tax their system. They would have to talk law makers into crushing the people with more debt, just so they could create more “money” from thin air... you know to cover the cost.... the whole system sounds even more ridiculous when you type it out.

Humans are doomed
 

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mleblanc138

mleblanc138

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Feb 24, 2011
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Luckily my main dump bank, Mountain America Credit Union still has their coin machines. They don't exist outside of Utah and a few states next to it. Coinstar rejected Silver in 2011, one of my first Silver Dimes was from a grocery store Coinstar. I found about 140 oz of Silver then stopped mid 2013 when my finds from half boxes started dropping a lot. I may start searching Quarters for W and errors. Although I'm mostly going to be focusing on Counting Cards at Blackjack, a skill I picked up a year and a half ago. While Utah has no casinos, I am 6 hours from Las Vegas, and a bit over 2 away from a small Nevada town set up to give Utah somewhat close casinos.
 

GlenDronach

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Aug 21, 2012
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Shortage was something of a misnomer. There wasn't a shortage of coins, just a shortage of movement.

All the branches around me closed down, so people weren't bringing in coins. Local processors (Loomis, Dunbar, etc) curtailed operations, so banks cut what they gave out to businesses only in small amounts. A lot of the places that used cash either shut down or went to curbside/online only.

Basically, all the coins were still there, they just weren't moving through society like they usually do.
 

GMan00001

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Dec 19, 2006
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Shortage was something of a misnomer. There wasn't a shortage of coins, just a shortage of movement.

All the branches around me closed down, so people weren't bringing in coins. Local processors (Loomis, Dunbar, etc) curtailed operations, so banks cut what they gave out to businesses only in small amounts. A lot of the places that used cash either shut down or went to curbside/online only.

Basically, all the coins were still there, they just weren't moving through society like they usually do.

That's almost exactly what I was going to say. On top of that most businesses quit accepting coins (unless exact change), so with businesses no longer collecting them and bringing them to the bank either, movement was restricted even more.
 

Avago

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Shortage was something of a misnomer. There wasn't a shortage of coins, just a shortage of movement.

All the branches around me closed down, so people weren't bringing in coins. Local processors (Loomis, Dunbar, etc) curtailed operations, so banks cut what they gave out to businesses only in small amounts. A lot of the places that used cash either shut down or went to curbside/online only.

Basically, all the coins were still there, they just weren't moving through society like they usually do.

I was also going to post something to this effect. I checked in with my old pickups a couple weeks ago and as far as inability to get coin goes, they pretty much passed the buck to the couriers. They advised that with lockdowns and the lack of movement of physical currency, the couriers laid off staff and are now really having a difficult time making their deliveries.

Now, how much of that is bullsh...baloney, I can't really say. I would agree that the banks are likely certainly in no hurry to resume the expenditure of catering to our hobby.
 

fistfulladirt

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My CU’s lobby has been closed since March. The last transaction that I made with them, a week ago, they came out to the parking lot to my car. I gave them cash to make a deposit from a car sale, teller came back out with a receipt. Some other banks and CU’s in the area have closed lobbies one week, open the next. :tongue3: Clown world.

Can’t enter a bank or credit union, but Wally World or Target next door is just fine. Got it!
 

eyemustdigtreasure

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The coin shortage should end, 'bout the time I cash-in all my coins, that I've been hoarding...! :laughing7:
 

Dozer D

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Feb 12, 2012
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About half of my dime boxes recently are the 2020s, which we should have seen last summer. Still getting a few silver dimes. January found 70 (65rosie, 5merc) out of 50-boxes, but 23 skunks included., Feb only 18 silvers out of 22 boxes.
 

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