File photo
                                The COVID-19 pandemic has kept coins out of circulation.

File photo

The COVID-19 pandemic has kept coins out of circulation.

<p>Vinson</p>

Vinson

LAURINBURG — “It’s time for everyone to empty their piggy-banks and get those coins back in circulation.”

That was the message this week from Mike Vinson, area executive at First Bank in Laurinburg.

According to information from a national banking service, the COVID‐19 pandemic has significantly disrupted the supply chain and normal circulation patterns for U.S. coin. In the past few months, coin deposits from depository institutions to the Federal Reserve have declined significantly and the U.S. Mint’s production of coins also decreased due to measures put in place to protect its employees.

A notice recently sent out stated that Federal Reserve coin orders from depository institutions have begun to increase as regions reopen, resulting in the Federal Reserve’s coin inventory being reduced to below normal levels. While the U.S. Mint is the issuing authority for coin, the Federal Reserve manages coin inventory and its distribution to depository institutions (including commercial banks, community banks, credit unions and thrifts) through Reserve Bank cash operations and off-site locations across the country operated by Federal Reserve vendors.

“We receive regular coin and currency shipments from the Fed,” Vinson said. “A few days ago, we were advised that our coin order would likely be reduced — and (Wednesday’s) shipment did not include any quarters because they had none to disburse.

“Other local banks are similarly impacted, so I’d guess that we’d all like for people to take this opportunity to bring their coins in so we can recycle into the community through our business clients,” he added.

On Monday, to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of existing coin inventory to all depository institutions, the Federal Reserve banks and their coin distribution locations began to allocate available supplies of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters to depository institutions as a temporary measure.

The temporary coin allocation methodology is based on historical order volume by coin denomination and depository institution endpoint, and current U.S. Mint production levels.

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-506-3023 or [email protected].