MIDLAND, Texas — Among the various shortages popping up in the United States, an unexpected one is coins.
"Don’t start hoarding coins just because you think we’re going to run out. It’s not like toilet paper," said Lori Wesley, Frost Bank Community Development Officer.
Bank workers say coins need to be used right now more than ever, because the US is still a big cash society and many people don’t have access to debit or credit cards.
Alone, these people are not putting enough dollar bills and change into the system.
Banks say everyone needs to do their part.
"We do a lot of business with small businesses and they bring their deposits in, so when those businesses are closed we don’t get coins back into the bank to recirculate. The same thing happens when bank lobbies are closed," Wesley said.
Wesley says it should only take a little while for everything to balance back out in the world of money.
For the time being, Frost Bank isn’t producing change orders for any non-customers.
Regardless, the change orders they are producing are taking a little longer.
"So now, when one of our customers calls in for a change order, it may not be that day that they get it. It may take us a day or couple hours to fill it from other branches in Frost," Wesley said.
But here’s what banks say you can do to help:
- Pay for your groceries with your coins first, then cash, then your credit card.
- Take your coins to the bank and ask for cash in return.
- Use coin counting machines at grocery stores or banks to re-stimulate their reserve of coins.
Now more than ever is when we need to be looking for those lucky pennies.
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