Loose Change Card Game Directions For Hand
Some gift cards require a minimum amount of change, such as $5 for an Amazon gift card or a minimum of $10 for an Outback Steakhouse eGift card. Again, you may need to count that change first to. Dec 01, 2013.
Banks are begging you to break open your piggy bank, dig through your seat cushions and unload those coffee cans full of change sitting in the closet.
The COVID-19 change shortage has bankers all across the country asking customers to bring in rolled coins as a way to pump more pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters into circulation.
“If you have spare change, we encourage Michiganders to contact their local bank and make an appointment to exchange rolled coins,' said T. Rann Paynter, President & CEO, Michigan Bankers Association, in a statement.
A Wisconsin bank went so far in July as to offer an extra $5 for every $100 in coins that are brought into the Community State Bank, whose main office is in Union Grove.
The deal turned out to be incredibly popular and lasted but 7 days, ending at the close of business July 21.
'People brought stuff in cans, bags and jars,' said Greg Wall, chief innovation officer for Community State Bank, which has $460 million in assets and 7 branches in southeastern Wisconsin.
'People have been sitting on this stuff for a long time and they finally had an opportunity to do something,' Wall said.
One person brought in $4,000 in coins – netting a $200 bonus.
'At this point, we're going to pause the program,' Wall said, noting that the goal of building up coin inventory for local businesses was met and then some.
It's quite a switch from a time when many banks didn't want your spare change.
In the past few years, many big banks phased out services that would count your coins for you. Some, like Community State Bank, charge a 10% fee or so for non-customers to count their change. Other banks charge both customers and non-customers to count their coins.
Banks want you to roll up coins in paper wrappers yourself. Some banks may limit the dollar value of coins they're willing to take.
But a lot has changed during the pandemic.
Quite simply, we're not throwing around our money like we used to ever since mid-March when huge chunks of the U.S. economy shut down in an effort to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Laundromats, coffee shops, bank branches, and other spots where coins regularly changed hands either closed doors or significantly trimmed back operations when COVID-19 limits went into place.
At the same time, the 'U.S. Mint’s production of coin also decreased due to measures put in place to protect its employees,' according to the Federal Reserve. Production has been ramped up.
Recirculated coins represent more than 80% of the supply; the rest involves new coins produced by the U.S. Mint.
Even as the economy reopens, change isn't rattling around the car like it did last summer.
The Ohio Turnpike continues flashing electronic signs that suggest that drivers use E-ZPass or a credit card, not cash, to pay their toll in light of COVID-19.
'We will continue to discourage cash during the pandemic because handling it is riskier than our other methods of payment,' said Brian Newbacher, public information officer for the Ohio Turnpike and Infrastructure Commission.
Currently, he said, the turnpike is able to recycle the coins it receives to other customers who are using cash. But cash usage is down.
Many drivers are responding to those electronic signs. During the month of June, Newbacher said, cash transactions at the toll booths were down 44% compared to last June. And credit transactions were up by 32%.
'If customers are going to use cash we ask that they do their best to provide us exact change, if possible,' he said.
'That way, we can also do our part to not only keep everyone safe, but avoid adding to the coin shortage as well.'
Cash isn't always king
Some retailers are encouraging the use of plastic, not paper currency, due to fears that currency could spread the disease. So theoretically, the pandemic could help boost cashless, digital transactions.
Even so, some small businesses still prefer cash payments and may be hurt by the coin shortage because they want to avoid the extra fees charged to merchants when customers pay with a credit card.
And every shortage comes with its own conspiracy theory. Some say it's a grand plan to put a stop to the private nature of cash transactions.
One Facebook post stated: 'Start saving coins, they will soon be worth more as a keepsake or remembrance of 'the old world.' The national coin shortage will be just like the great toilet paper shortage -- the only difference is, once the coins are gone, they will not be coming back.'
But Patricia Herndon, executive vice president for government relations for the Michigan Bankers Association, said the lack of coin simply reflects spending patterns.
'People are just not really using coins and cash right now,' Herndon said. 'This is truly an issue of money flow.'
Some are worried about transmitting germs by using cash. But Herndon said people just need to take precautions, such as washing your hands or using hand sanitizer after exchanging money.
'You're not the first person to touch it; you're not the last person to touch it,' she said.
Demand for change picks up
The Fed began rationing coins this summer to deal with the shortage since demand is expected to pick up as businesses reopen.
The Federal Reserve is projecting that we'll experience a gap between supply and demand that ranges from 2.3 billion to 3.5 billion coins each month through the end of 2020.
Loose Change Card Game Directions For Hands
Nationwide, more than 4 billion coins were deposited – or recirculated – each month in the beginning of 2020, according to the Michigan Bankers Association.
The numbers plummeted by more than half to essentially less than 2 billion beginning in April.
The Federal Reserve has formed a U.S. Coin Task Force to 'identify, implement, and promote actions to address disruptions to coin circulation.'
During the pandemic even when many do go out, they tend to use debit cards or credit cards at the store more frequently because they want to avoid handling cash. My husband has taken to using a McDonald's gift card at the drive-thru window to limit physical contact when paying for his $1 Diet Coke and my $2 iced coffee.
The change that we would have received – and later spent elsewhere – is no longer a steady part of our daily spending diet.
Retailers craft their own strategies
We're seeing all sorts of signs at the cash register, as retailers take creative approaches to dealing with the shortage.
Dollar Tree posted signs at the door stating: 'Dollar Tree will purchase any rolled coins you want to exchange for cash.'
A few customers have walked in the door with some coins wrapped in rolls to exchange for paper currency. 'We're getting some, not many,' said Daisy Myers, assistant manager at the Dollar Tree in Hazel Park.
The Dollar Tree, which also owns Family Dollar stores, asks customers to pay by debit or credit card or use exact change to cover a purchase when possible.
What happens when you shop could vary by where you shop. I visited a Dollar Tree in Hazel Park Monday morning and asked if I could use a $10 bill to cover a $5.59 charge and the clerk said she would have no problem offering me change.
But I decided that I could hand her $10.60 and she gave me $5 back and a penny.
Loose Change Card Game Rules
More: How a coin shortage is impacting retailers and grocery stores
Kroger said it can now load coin change onto a customer's loyalty card so the shopper can use that extra change on the card during the next trip for groceries.
Kroger also asks customers if they want to round up a purchase to an even number to avoid a need for change and support The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger Zero Waste Foundation, a public charity.
'Like many retailers and businesses, we are adjusting to the temporary shortage in several ways,' said Rachel Hurst, corporate affairs manager for the Kroger Co. of Michigan.
Kroger is also providing coin change at lanes in the store that have coins available, Hurst said.
Self-checkout registers at many retailers may now only allow purchases with plastic cards and no longer offer change.
Spare change can supplement any budget during uncertain economic times, too. Yet some traffic was down at coin counting machines too.
During the pandemic, Coinstar kiosks remained available but foot traffic at supermarkets and other locations was down so fewer people were exchanging coins, according to a statement from Jim Gaherity, CEO of Coinstar.
'As lockdowns end, coin transactions and volumes through Coinstar
kiosks are growing and, accordingly, we've been making more frequent coin
pick-ups to help get coins back in circulation,' Gaherity said.
If your hours are cut at work, it may be a good time to reconsider letting unused coins just sit there. It's best to avoid any fees, though, if using any coin counting machines.
Coinstar kiosks offer eGift Cards in exchange for coins with no extra fee. Otherwise, you could face an 11.9% service fee to convert the coins to paper ; fees may vary by location.
Check online first at Coinstar.com/giftcards to understand the rules. Some gift cards require a minimum amount of change, such as $5 for an Amazon gift card or a minimum of $10 for an Outback Steakhouse eGift card. Again, you may need to count that change first to save the most money.
Contact Susan Tompor at 313-222-8876 or stompor@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @tompor. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.
In Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth Bennet spent a few nights at Netherfield Park so she could nurse her ill sister, Jane. The first evening, after Jane had finally fallen asleep, Elizabeth ventured downstairs to join Mr. Darcy, Mr. Bingley, his sister Caroline, and Mr. and Mrs. Hurst.
Mr. Darcy, Caroline Bingley, and Charles Bingley play a game of loo at Netherfield in the 1985 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice.
Loose Change Card Game
On entering the drawing-room she found the whole party at loo, and was immediately invited to join them; but suspecting them to be playing high she declined it, and making her sister the excuse, said she would amuse herself for the short time she could stay below, with a book. Mr. Hurst looked at her with astonishment.
“Do you prefer reading to cards?” said he; “that is rather singular.”
There was a new card game just beginning to make the rounds in 1797, the same year in which Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice. In their October issue that year Sporting Magazine took great delight in publishing the rules of the game of Tontine, writing:
The rules we here give for playing this game are entirely new; nothing of this having yet been published for the game it is almost unknown in London, except in the polite circles of Fashion.
If you’re a writer (or reader) of Regency era fiction or romance, and you’d like to give your characters a new game to play besides Whist, Loo, Piquet or Lottery Tickets, Tontine may be the game you’re looking for.
Here are the rules:
Tontine may be played by twelve or fifteen persons; but the more the merrier.
It is played with an entire pack of fifty-two cards. Before they begin, every one is to take a stake, consisting of twelve, fifteen, or twenty counters more or less; each of them they value as they please; and at the beginning of the party, each player puts three counters in the box, which is on the middle of the table; then he is to deal, being cut to him by his left hand, turns up a card from the stock, or each player, according to his rank, and gives at the same time one to himself.
The player whose card turned up is a king, draws three counters from the box, for his own profit; if it is a queen he draws two, and for a knave one; he that has a ten, neither draws or pays any thing.
He that has an ace, gives one counter to his left hand neighbour; he that has a deuce gives two to his second left hand neighbour, and he that has a three, gives three to his third left hand neighbour, as his second left-hand neighbour; and he that has a three gives three to his third left hand neighbour
As for him that has a four, he puts two of his counters into the box; a five puts one there; a six two; a seven one; an eight two; and a nine one; observing to pay, and to be paid, exactly what is due.
Then he who is on the right of the first dealer, takes up the cards and deals; and this deal is played in the same manner as the first; and each player deals in his turn.
They who have lost all their counters are dead; but they do not die without hope, seeing that any of them may revive again, by the assistance of an ace, which may be in the hand of his right hand neighbour, for which he receives a counter, or by means of two, which may be in the hand of his second right hand neighbour, for which he receives two counters; or by a three in the hand of his third right hand neighbour, for which he receives three counters.
The player who has a single counter only, has the same right to play as he that has ten or twelve; and if he should lose two or three counters that deal, he can only pay what he has got, and has his discharge.
The deceased players have no cards before them, nor do they deal, though it comes to their turn, unless they are lucky enough to come to life again, then they plan again, just as if they had never died.
Mr. Collins (left) plays a game of whist with Mrs. Philips (right) in the 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice.
He who outlives all the rest, by having counters left, when theirs are gone, wins the parly, and enjoys what the others have deposited.
If you’d like to read the original text as it appeared in Sporting Magazine, click here to view a scanned version of the article.
Now that you have the rules down, are you (or the Regency characters you create) ready to give the game a try? Gather some friends, round up some counters, deal the cards, and good luck!