MERCHANTS FIND PENNIES IN SHORTAGE.Byline: Bill Bergstrom Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A penny saved is a penny earned, but too many pennies saved is a big problem for the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia. Some area stores have been asking customers to dig for exact change as their cash drawers A cash drawer is generally a compartment underneath a cash register in which the cash from transactions is kept. The drawer is usually divided into separate compartments for notes and coins for ease of use. have run short of pennies in recent weeks. Meanwhile, stores and banks have sharply increased their orders for pennies, though no one can point to a reason for a shortage except the accumulations that pile up on dressers, in jars and in piggy banks, said Federal Reserve Bank spokesman Bob McCarthy. ``People do not take time to put pennies back in their pocket,'' McCarthy said Wednesday. ``Everyone hoards.'' As area merchants feel the crunch (1) To process data. See number crunching. (2) To compress data. See data compression. 1. (jargon) crunch - To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. , some have posted notes at cash registers asking customers for exact change. Chris McDowell, manager of a downtown Wawa Food Market, said he has run short of pennies several times in the past two weeks, but customers have helped the cashiers cope. Sometimes a cashier CASHIER. An officer of a moneyed institution, who is entitled by virtue of his office to take care of the cash or money of such institution. 2. The cashier of a bank is usually entrusted with all the funds of the bank, its notes, bills, and other choses in will return a little extra money to make the change come out even. At other times a customer will hand over a dollar for a 98-cent item and wave away the change, he said. McDowell said he understood the tendency to pile up pennies. ``I have a five-gallon jug at home that I would say is three-fourths full of pennies. I just don't want to wrap them,'' he said. The Federal Reserve Bank distributed 700 million pennies to financial institutions in eastern Pennsylvania, western New Jersey and Delaware from January through May of this year, a 22 percent jump from the 575 million distributed in the same period last year, McCarthy said. In addition, banks are not sending as many pennies as usual back to the Federal Reserve, worsening wors·en tr. & intr.v. wors·ened, wors·en·ing, wors·ens To make or become worse. Noun 1. worsening - process of changing to an inferior state decline in quality, deterioration, declension the pinch pinch, n a small amount of chewing tobacco (snuff) an individual takes to use the substance for its desired effect. A “pinch” is called a quid in Britain. , McCarthy said. CAPTION(S): PHOTO Although the Philadelphia mint The Philadelphia Mint was created from the need to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce. This led America's founding fathers to make an establishment of a continental national mint a main priority after the ratification of the Constitution. produces 40 million pennies a d ay, the region around the city has been experiencing a dearth of coins. Dan Loh/Associated Press |
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