Don't have a link, but I happened to be at a Michigan National Bank branch (owned by National Australia Bank Group BTW.. that international connection again that most MNB customers are completely unaware of))at a Meijer store today and I saw the manager looking at memo sent over their branch communication systems. I saw Federal Reserve title on the screen and asked what it was about. She mentioned that the Federal Reserve reports a coin shortage in all denominations across the United States. The manager said that in July a similar memo announced a penny shortage. There was a Y2K memo also that I couldn't read because she looked at it quickly. Just thought it was interesting....

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), November 03, 1999

Answers

I admit it, it was me.

I was hoarding coins and melting them down for the silver content so that I could make lots and lots of silver bullets for the werewolves that I heard could start coming out in or around the Apocalypse. Little did I realize that those coins don't HAVE any silver content in them. I must have melted down a ten thousand dollars worth of nickels alone in a single day.

Sorry guys. I'll stop now. Things should be back to normal in a few weeks , tops.

-- (I@didn't know.any better), November 03, 1999.

Actually, this is possibly more significant than it appears. When the proverbial balloon goes up/poo-poo drops in the mixmaster/pick your metaphor-make sure that among your squirrelled away cash there are a few rolls of 'Vin Ordinair' quarters and a packet or two of ones and fives. Remember what happened during the aftermath of the Northridge e-quake. Quarts of milk and loafs of bread escalated in price to the level offered (sorry, no change). Vending machines do not make change either.

Then there is the inherent danger in waving hundred dollar bills about in plain sight. Note: when I cashed my check today, I was asked if I wouldn't mind taking hundreds. No explanation.

-- chairborne commando (what-me-worry@armageddon.com), November 03, 1999.

The Safeway store in McMinnville, Oregon has a pretty green machine up by the service counter that will count your jars full of coins for you and issue you a voucher to use in the store or just get cash. The fee for performing this service is a mere 9% of the count. Since you didn't know how much you had in that jug to start out with, you'll never miss that 9%.

A sign of the times. I've been using a lot more cash lately (always accepted, never "down", if lost my entire balance not at risk etc) and by the end of the day my pockets are weighted down with loose change which gets tossed in a bucket by the door. The bucket is very heavy.

Note to Fed: You just keep that banking system up and all that loose change will come back to you in the first couple of months of 2000. If not, well, we will need the loose change out here in the hinterlands to spend back into circulation and try to re-establish the economy.

-- JIT (justintime@rightnow.net), November 03, 1999.

What a dork. Everybody knows nickel bullets are for the aliens.

-- Sam (Gunmkr52@aol.com), November 03, 1999.

The easy way to get lots of quarters is at the laundry mat. Everyweek, I make it a point to stop at the local laundry mat and stick a $10 bill in the coin machine and get quarters. It is great, for just a second or two, I get this great rush while all the coins are falling into the slot that I imagine I am at a slot machine listenings to the big jackpot pay out. Its a great way to get all the coins one wants and no one knows or cares that you are getting coins to wash cloths with, only I do not stay and wash.

-- chicken farmer (chicken-farmer@ y2k.farm), November 04, 1999.

Used to be, Sweetie and I would collect our change and periodically roll it and cash it in for $40-50 of paper money. We haven't cashed it in for over a year now. Better to have and not need. . . Bet we're not the only ones.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), November 04, 1999.

I bailed from FRB back in 1995. I still have friends in several branches. Just got off phone with three (hey, 800 numbers are nice, ain't they?) in locations of West Coast, Central, East Coast. NOPE, sub vaults are still full of coin. No shortages. Hell, they count them by weight, not count. And you are required to wear steel toed shoes to work in coin vault. If you ever get the chance, the real place to visit is the money vault. Nothing like 10 x 10 chain linked rooms inside a vault, each has money stacked in large bundles on cheepy metal shelves, about 2 foot cubes for each 'bundle'. Made my heart go pitter pat, especially the ones that had all the hundreds. Woaa nelly. That says nothing of the 50 Billion than Unca Alan has had printed and distributed nationwide.

-- Wallew (Wallew@aol.com), November 04, 1999.

"Then there is the inherent danger in waving hundred dollar bills about in plain sight. Note: when I cashed my check today, I was asked if I wouldn't mind taking hundreds. No explanation. "

Explanation is that the Fed/Treasury "solved" the cash withdrawal problem by having an extra billion or so Franklins printed up this year, now in storage or getting into circulation.

It's at the Fed's website press releases, for Aug. 14, I think it was.

GET THIS: They printed $267 billion in currency last fiscal year. Starting October, the print order was for $67 billion. $200 BILLION less! (All those grotty ones & fives they haven't replaced this year.)

This means there will be three classes of dollars should the public clean out the currency stash:

(1) e-dollars trapped in digital limbo

(2) C-notes hard to spend on everyday stuff, but better'n nothing.

(3) small change

I've missed you all -- fellow old-timers (oh, let's say the first half of 1999) -- thanks for hanging in there.

Remember -- preparation is INSURANCE, not prediction. Our emotions carry us away, and sometimes have to to get us to prepare. Then the pendulum swings back. Have you ever had to learn and go through so much on an individual and public level in such a short time? I hope we will indeed be better for all our learning.

Too bad we haven't yet set up a mirror site for read only.

Now, back to preps...

-- lying_low (old_timer@this.forum), November 04, 1999.

awesome idea on the coins. i love laudramats. nice friendly folks always willing to chat. i used to actulaly enjoy when my washer/dryer went on the fritz.

-- tt (cuddluppy@yahoo.com), November 04, 1999.

If you want quarters ---- just go to your bank and buy them. No questions asked. $500 gets you a box of 2000 quarters. Too simple!

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), November 04, 1999.