Can you spare some change? That's what some stores and banks in the city, and across the country, are now asking their customers.

They need pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, the most popular coin currencies, because of a nationwide-coin shortage.

What You Need To Know

  • The U.S. Mint reduced coin production when it put safety measures into place to protect its employees from COVID-19

  • Many consumers stopped paying in cash to avoid handling money, a potential route for coronavirus transmission

  • The coin shortage is impacting convenience stores and bodegas, especially in lower- income neighborhoods where many customers pay in cash

"The change is getting harder to find. It's another issue for us to deal with,” said Bronx bodega owner Frank Marte.

Marte owns three bodegas in the Bronx. For months now, he has not been able to get enough coins to properly run his stores.

"It's getting very hard. When I went to the bank and asked for change, they told me they didn't have any change to spare,“ said Marte. 

The coin shortage is just another example of the aftershocks arising from the pandemic. Experts say the U.S. Mint had to reduce coin production when it put safety measures into place to protect its employees from the coronavirus.

At the same time, many consumers stopped paying in cash to avoid handling money, a potential route for virus transmission.

This has reduced the amount of coins in circulation like never before.

Many convenience stores and bodegas are wrestling with this coin crisis, especially in lower- income neighborhoods where many customers pay in cash.

"It's a real problem when you are a business and somebody's only means of paying for something is by cash, and it's difficult to give them the change you want to give them, “ said Jeff Lenard, of the National Association of Convenience Stores.

Marte now asks customers to pay with exact change, or he rounds the bill to the next lowest dollar amount to avoid giving out change. He even offers to give candy as change if the customer agrees.

"It's hard to force the people to spend what they don't want to spend and it's hard for us to lose what we need in the store. It's another challenge,“ said Marte.

It's difficult to say how much longer the coin shortage will last. Last month, the U.S. Mint resumed full production. By the end of the year, it expects to produce almost 7.5 billion more coins than last year.

Meanwhile, there is something we all can do to ”change" the situation: take your spare coins to the bank or a coin kiosk, or use them when you go shopping to put them back into circulation.