[pengaru]

It's odd how banks have largely stopped operating change counting machines.

In my childhood we'd hoard loose change then make a trip to the local po-dunk bank serving my neighborhood surrounded by corn fields, and even there they'd take our bucket of loose change and dump it into a counting machine for free.

It was a game to try guess the amount we'd get in paper cash...

Now you have to pay for this service at a grocery store using a cumbersome machine operated by Coinstar.

[zdragnar]

COVID happened. However, all three of the banks I visit regularly (over branch of a national bank, two branches of a local credit union) all have coin counting machines in the lobby, though it took awhile for them to be added back to the branches that took theirs out.

[pengaru]

No doubt COVID kicked skimpflation into high gear, but this was already a pattern I noticed long before 2019.

It seemed to generally coincide with the demise of retail in general, and of course the elimination of bank-teller interactions and emergence of ATM machines. All of these things are a blurry mess from my past...

[sowbug]

Fun fact: modern dimes, quarters, and half-dollars all have the same value by weight -- about $20 per pound.

[addaon]

This is true by design (silver coins had a weight chosen by value of silver), not coincidence. Also while nickels and pennies don’t match.