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U.S. Mint Lays off Hundreds as Consumers Dip Into Penny Jars, Compounding Coin Surplus

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A surplus of coins compounded by Americans emptying their change jars in the softening economy has forced the the U.S. Mint to begin layoffs.

Instead of 23 billion new pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters next year, mint officials now believe they'll need only 15 billion.

The mint had already made too many coins during the past year.

The drop in demand for new coins is staggering, said James Benfield, executive director of the Coin Coalition, a Washington lobbying group that supports the dollar coin.

"As the economy slows down, this stuff comes out of the closet," Benfield told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "When you're out of a job, you cash in all your coins."

The mint has begun laying off 357 workers nationwide, including major coin-production plants in Philadelphia and Denver, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

"This all happened fairly rapidly," U.S. Mint spokeswoman Susan Valaskovic said.

Tens of millions of dollars worth of coins are unexpectedly back in circulation after months or years on dresser tops and in shoe boxes, according to Coinstar, a company that operates 9,300 coin-changing machines in supermarkets.

The machines count a shopper's coins and exchange them for cash or groceries.

Coinstar estimated that Americans have $7.7 billion in spare change at their homes.

For the mint, lower production means lower profits because it charges the Federal Reserve for the full face value of a coin, though it costs less to manufacture. For example, it costs 4.5 cents to make a quarter, but the mint charges 25 cents. The balance goes to the U.S. Treasury to pay for other government operations.

The agency - which also has operations in San Francisco, West Point, N.Y., and Washington, D.C. - plans to get rid of about 12 percent of its 2,861 employees. Coins for eastern states are made in Philadelphia; coins for the West are made in Denver.

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

Answers

>Americans have $7.7 billion in spare change at their homes

Wow! I wonder how much is in my 5 gal crock? Enough for a new window??

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

Meemur,

You just may be surprised at how much you have. Last year when we had the vacation from hell, we thought we'd turn in the coins at the bank so that my son would have money while in Florida visiting his dad. We were thinking it would only be a couple of hundred. It turned out that we had around 800.00 and the 5 gallon water bottle was only about 1/3 full.

We have been tossing all coins once again into the bottle, and it currently is about a quarter full. Don't see any reason to turn em in again, so I'll keep cleaning out my purse every couple of weeks. (I should do it weekly, as it seems like my purse weighs about 5 lbs less when I empty all my change out... lol)

apoc

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

I think the Coinstar machines have a lot to do with the change being recycled, too. I was always to lazy to roll the damn things up, but hate having change in my pockets, or taking the time in a line to count out the correct change. So it accumulates in odd corners, drawers, cans... I've seen lots of people coming in with shopping carts with big jugs full of change to dump them in the machines... It would take days to roll up all that...

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001