No, really.
The Mint is asking people to pay with exact change and to find other ways to return coins they may have lying around to circulation, it said in a press release Thursday.
“We ask that the American public start spending their coins, depositing them, or exchanging them for currency at financial institutions or taking them to a coin redemption kiosk,” the Mint said in the release. “The coin supply problem can be solved with each of us doing our part.”
“The places where you go to give your coins, and get credit at the store and get cash … those have not been working. Stores have been closed,” he said. “The whole system has kind of come to a stop.”
The US Mint also briefly slowed coin production to implement safety measures for workers, though it says it resumed regular production in mid-June.
Third-party coin processors and retail activity account for the majority of coins put in circulation, according to the Mint. Last year for example, those sources accounted for 83% of coins in the supply chain.
“There is an adequate amount of coins in the economy, but the slowed pace of circulation has meant that sufficient quantities of coins are sometimes not readily available where needed,” the Mint said Thursday. “We are asking for your help in improving this coin supply issue.”
