How much do you have lying around?
Loraine came home from work a couple of
days ago and was telling me about how banks (the one she works at
included) are running short of coins these days. That's probably not
a surprise; for most of this year people haven't been out buying
things, and many stores aren't even accepting cash these days. So it
makes sense that there aren't a lot of coins in circulation these
days.
However, that means than stores that do
need to give out change (and the banks that supply those stores)
don't have what they need, thanks to the jars, bowls, and pockets
filled with unused coins. I'm one of those people; I have a jar at
work in which I throw change that's just lying around. Knowing banks
are in dire need, I emptied the jar into a plastic bag, walked across
the street to Loraine's bank, and walked away with $56.12.
That's a lot of change.
If I'm normal (and stop laughing at
that statement) and had $56.12 in change, just how many coins are
lying around the country in jars and bowls and pockets around the
country? Say I represent one household. There are 128.5 million
other households in the country. If each one of them has $56.12 in
change lying around, that's....let's see here...carry the one...bang
the calculator on the desk because the batteries are dying...that's
$7, 211,000,000 in coins lying around being unused.
Over seven billion dollars worth!
Now, despite my supposition above I'm
not normal. Maybe I had a higher amount of coinage lying around than
most people. But maybe not. Maybe there really IS 7 billion dollars
worth of quarters, dimes, and pennies lying around. It wouldn't
surprise me. If we haven't been able to spend them and we've just
been collecting them, there really could be that much floating
around.
So do your bank a favor. Get your
coins together and schlep 'em over to your favored branch. Who
knows—you may have a lot more lying around than you ever thought
possible.
Maybe even $56.12 worth!
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