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 Replies: 29 / Views: 4,358 |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
After this post I went to my local branch of a BOA bank. I asked if they have any piles, bags or anything in the way of bulk coins in their vault. I asked an officer of the bank that knew me so as to not get people thinking I was planning a robbery. He explained that they only keep a small amount of coins based on previous requests of people that have a business that requires coins. All coins brought in by customers are sent out to a main office for counting so those too are not on site. It is just not economical to keep large amounts of coins on hand. Takes up to much room and thus would require a larger vault.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
I cannot back it up, but was told by a respectable collector that 6 million 1943 pennies were dumped into the ocean as a way to get rid of them years ago. I do believe that is true, that they dumped them, the exact number may be off. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Did some searching through past mint reports, couldn't find a reference there as to the dumping at sea of the steel cents, but I did find year by year figures from 1945 to 1965 of the number of steel cents withdrawn from circulation each year. (In the reports they refer tot he amount of steel recovered by melting so I would assume none of the cents withdrawn by the mint were dumped at sea.)
year number in millions
1945 .5
1946 0
1947 2.7
1948 5.8
1949 15.8
1950 29.1
1951 22
1952 14.3
1953 11.2
1954 no figure
1955 5.6
1956 no figure
1957 3.6
1958 3.3
1959 3.4
1960 4.9
1961 2.5
1962 1.9
1963 .93
1964 .35
1965 .14
total 1945 - 1965 163 million coins withdrawn (The numbers don't add up completely because in some year reports are by fiscal year and others are by calendar year. The final figure of 163 million should be pretty accurate and accounts for close to 15% of the total mintage.)
Edited by Conder101
07/29/2016 2:03 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2273 Posts |
Thanks for that Conder101.
I had no idea that the mint had removed so many.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2273 Posts |
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I don't think 'The Fed' has a policy. They have outsourced the handling of coin to private contractors (e.g. Loomis). Coins are delivered from the mint in balistic bags. It's the coin terminal that wraps them, distributrs them to banks, picks up extra coins from the banks. And thus is't the coin terminals that decide which to distribute first. Yes. My understanding is that all 12 FEDs now contract out virtually all of the coin handling duties. However I seriously doubt any of them store significant amounts of coin. It is possible that the contract involves turning over the coins but hardly certain. The FED even is probably contracting storage of coins as well but these would be different fascilities. I suspect the total overhang of coins is very low right now but it is variable over time and from district to district. In regions where commerce is slow there may be coins in storage. Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5180 Posts |
Quote:I cannot back it up, but was told by a respectable collector that 6 million 1943 pennies were dumped into the ocean as a way to get rid of them years ago. Never bothered to follow up on that story. Might google it someontime. A lot of the SBA dollars became subway tokens for the Baltimore, MD subway. Well, many of the leftover steel cent planchets became Belgian 2 franc coins. I have one of those, it's pretty nice (though probably cleaned). Never heard of the sea dump story. I'd love to get one of those SBA Baltimore tokens, incidentally (at least, if they're anywhere near recognizable, I don't know the details) - but they're probably pricey. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
When he said they became subway token he means that they were basically used for paying subway fares and being returned as change. Not that they were made into tokens. Use in mass transit is about the only thing the small size dollars have made any headway at, and shipments to large cities with major subways, trains etc, are about the only reason for the roughly six million coin per month draw down on the stockpile. (Up from 5 million in the days of the SBA.) |
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CCF Advertiser
United States
1533 Posts |
If my pants burned up, I'd lose $100, but I can't just print more bills. The government can. So what is lost is not the value on sale, but the manufacturing cost of the bills or coins. If you book the printing of a $100 that costs Two Cents to make as $100 and then call it a loss when it burns up, you have an accounting problem. Edited by Andrew99
08/01/2016 9:18 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5180 Posts |
Quote:
When he said they became subway token he means that they were basically used for paying subway fares and being returned as change. Not that they were made into tokens. I thought of something similar to the role of Soviet 5 kopek coins in the Moscow subway. (I'm old enough to recall exchange machines for Soviet coins on the walls of subway station entrances - though not quite old enough to recall them being actually in use, unfortunately.) |
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Valued Member
United States
314 Posts |
I'm fascinated by Conder101's comment about how four coins per week taken out of circulation by a family of four eats up the full mint production. Two questions occur to me (and I'm sure it's been discussed before, sorry, but it fits here): do more coins come out of the coffee can when the economy dips? And is there any way to know if Coinstar, now available free at many credit unions and grocery stores, had made a significant dent in the number of coffee cans?
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Moderator
 United States
190060 Posts |
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do more coins come out of the coffee can when the economy dips? Yes, they do. One of the recurring topics a few years back was The Great Coin Jar Dump of 2008. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:
I'm fascinated by Conder101's comment about how four coins per week taken out of circulation by a family of four eats up the full mint production. Here are the aassumptions and numbers behind the statement. US population, call it 350 million people. Assuming an average of 4 people per household that's 87.5 million households. Times four coins pulled from circulation (lost, hoarded, thrown away) per household a week is 350 million coins a week. Times 52 weeks comes to 18.2 billion coins. Since I believe the annual production is closer to 9 billion coins a year I think my comment was pretty generous. The true figure is probably closer to two coins per household per week. Frankly I've always wondered how it is that coins are so readily available. Edited by Conder101
08/15/2016 10:59 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
513 Posts |
Let's start a national-search-your-couch-cushions week to get some of these back into circulation!
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Moderator
United States
190060 Posts |
Well, you should add vehicles to the search parameters. I cleaned out both cars this weekend and found just over two dollars spread about in various places. The wife's car produced the bulk, for what it is worth.  |
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Replies: 29 / Views: 4,358 |
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Posted 07/28/2016 1:29 pm
