$1 Million in Coins Left at Airports
In 2023, the Transportation Security Administration reported that air travelers left nearly $1 million in small change coins behind at checkpoints.
There has been a spate of news articles favoring electronic payment transfers as opposed to physical coins due to the environmental damage caused by mining metals and then minting them into currency. Admittedly, coins involve resource-intensive processes, including mining for zinc and copper. Bank note production uses plastics and wood, the latter of which could be argued to be linked to deforestation and other environmental issues.
Looking at the flip side, operating digital currencies depends on electricity generated from fossil fuels, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. Digital currency reduces physical waste, but it increases the demand for energy and potentially exacerbates carbon emissions unless powered by renewable energy sources. Both systems entail significant environmental costs.
There are some interesting statistics regarding our use of coins and bank notes. At the end of 2020, the approximately 50.3 billion bank notes in circulation had an estimated value of $2.04 trillion. One year later, the Federal Reserve reported its digital balances at $4.18 trillion compared to $2.21 trillion in circulating cash. It appears there is still plenty of physical money in use.
Yet beyond this is the curious statistic that during 2023, the Transportation Security Administration reported air travelers leaving nearly $1 million in small change coins behind at checkpoints. This is about twice as much as was left behind in 2012. The worst year for abandoned cash was 2020, when $1.80 per 1,000 travelers was orphaned at TSA checkpoints.
Could this be because of more people traveling, or could it be because inflation has eroded the spending power of low-value coins?
The bottom line is that physical and electronic money are likely to continue to be strange bedfellows, as were checks, credit cards, and debit cards with physical cash in the past.
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