Too many coins prompt U.S. Mint layoffs

PHILADELPHIA -- A surplus of coins, perhaps compounded by Americans emptying their change jars in the softening economy, has prompted the the U.S. Mint to begin layoffs.

Instead of 23 billion new pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters next year, mint officials now believe they'll need only 15 billion.

The mint had already made too many coins during the past year.

The mint has begun laying off 357 workers nationwide, including major coin-production plants in Philadelphia and Denver, the newspaper reported Wednesday.

"This all happened fairly rapidly," U.S. Mint spokeswoman Susan Valaskovic said.

The drop in demand for new coins is staggering, said James Benfield, executive director of the Coin Coalition, a Washington lobbying group that supports the dollar coin.

Tens of millions of dollars worth of coins are unexpectedly back in circulation after months or years on dresser tops and in shoe boxes, Benfield said.

But a spokeswoman for Coinstar, a company that operates 9,300 coin-changing machines in supermarkets, said the company is not seeing an increase in usage of its machines.

The machines count a shopper's coins and exchange them -- minus a service charge -- for cash or groceries. Coinstar estimated that Americans have $7.7 billion in spare change at their homes.