TITOs and the Change Shortage

Before the pandemic, El Cortez had $120,000 in nickels, quarters, 50-cent pieces and dollar coins. After the casino shut down in March, it deposited all but $30,000 worth of coins at the bank, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Getting those coins back has been difficult.

"Our first coin order that we did after reopening, in July, we ordered $30,000 in quarters," El Cortez manager Adam Wiesberg told the newspaper. "When the Brinks people came, they brought us just $500 in quarters. That's when we realized firsthand that there was a coin issue. We're fortunate we kept that $30,000."

Sept. 9, 2020
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/casinos-are-getting-creative-combat-coin-shortage-n1239643

El Cortez is one of the last Las Vegas casinos to have coin slot machines
July 15, 2019
https://abc7.com/las-vegas-casino-destination-gambling-in-best-casinos/5397543/

Quote: ChumpChange

Before the pandemic, El Cortez had $120,000 in nickels, quarters, 50-cent pieces and dollar coins. After the casino shut down in March, it deposited all but $30,000 worth of coins at the bank, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Getting those coins back has been difficult.
link to original post

I believe in the free market. If their coin shortage was so desperate, they would buy coins from the public above face value. Have they done that? I rest my case.

Quote: Wizard

Quote: ChumpChange

Before the pandemic, El Cortez had $120,000 in nickels, quarters, 50-cent pieces and dollar coins. After the casino shut down in March, it deposited all but $30,000 worth of coins at the bank, according to the Las Vegas Sun.

Getting those coins back has been difficult.
link to original post

I believe in the free market. If their coin shortage was so desperate, they would buy coins from the public above face value. Have they done that? I rest my case.
link to original post

If ElCo did that, they'd need to replace the carpet between the coin droppers and the cage within a week.

I don't know about El Cortez, but we've been trending cashless for a year and a half now.

Before the pandemic, the food court at a large mall was doing away with most cash registers and requiring payment in plastic or by phone. The local BJ's has a dozen self serve lines that require plastic, and only one lane open with a checkout clerk who may or may not take cash.

If banks are only gonna fill 1% of a businesses' coin needs in a given week, cash won't work. If banks aren't gonna do business because the Fed won't send the coin in the first place, the banks become redundantly useless and close.

Quote: MrV

Quote: billryan

Just as our President released some oil from the national reserve, it is time for all good Americans to sacrifice a bit and turn in their spare change. Stop hoarding it.

No, you can't make me!

I've "hoarded" all my spare change for more than thirty years and it pretty much fills up a good-sized storage container.

When the zombie apocalypse finally arrives at least I'll have all the change I need to buy my freedom: zombies like spare change, I see them begging for it all the time on freeway offramps.
link to original post

I had a coworker who kept the 50¢ coins out of her tips each night and had just about filled a Culligan bottle with them. Someone broke into her house and took it.

Kharma is a witch.

Quote: JohnnyQ

Citizen Soopoo:

America thanks you !

- JohnnyQ ( aka Jerome Powell )
link to original post

Well…. at Wegmans to buy the stupid cranberry mold, stopped with my heavy bag of coins, and…. No option other than pay 11.9%! I hadn’t used the machine in years so it is a different one now! No way I pay that fee! I will go to the bank on Friday!

Quote: SOOPOO

No option other than pay 11.9%! I hadn’t used the machine in years so it is a different one now! No way I pay that fee!

Was it a COINSTAR brand machine ? Our local one had the LOWES Voucher No Fee option.

Quote: JohnnyQ

Quote: SOOPOO

No option other than pay 11.9%! I hadn’t used the machine in years so it is a different one now! No way I pay that fee!

Was it a COINSTAR brand machine ? Our local one had the LOWES Voucher No Fee option.
link to original post

I am not sure. But as I said, last time I did it at Wegmans the machine had a bunch of options that did not charge a fee.

Quote: SOOPOO

Quote: JohnnyQ

Citizen Soopoo:

America thanks you !

- JohnnyQ ( aka Jerome Powell )
link to original post

Well…. at Wegmans to buy the stupid cranberry mold, stopped with my heavy bag of coins, and…. No option other than pay 11.9%! I hadn’t used the machine in years so it is a different one now! No way I pay that fee! I will go to the bank on Friday!
link to original post

Before moving I went to Wells Fargo to redeem all of my coins. They no longer accepts coins unless they are rolled. They used to take your coins and send them off to their central location to be counted and deposited in your account a few days later.