I've Come for That 1975 Nickel in Your Pocket
The other day I noticed that I had a bicentennial quarter in my pocket. I didn't realize that such coins were still in circulation. My surprise at finding such a quarter raised the question: "How does the Federal Reserve remove bills and coins from circulation?" Do they periodically send agents down to the local Mapco Express or Captain D's, open the cash register, and replace all currency minted or printed before, say, 1983? Use the comment field to enlighten me.
posted by Tinley | 4:47 AM
1 Comments:
I can't speak for the Mint, but the process for the Treasury works something like this: When banks send notes to their Fed. Reserve branch, the Fed takes the notes that are in the worst shape and shred them. How much gets shredded depends tremendously on if the Fed is trying to tighten or loosen the flow of cash. Because paper wears out so quickly, this is why it is so hard to find bills more than eight years old. Especially small denominations.
I would imagine that coins work in a similar manner (with a little help from collectors).
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