At Panther Valley Laundromat in Lansford, there usually is a constant flow of quarters. But recently, the owners have noticed more of them leaving the premises instead of staying.

“We’ve been running short on change and we’ve been seeing people coming in to use the change machine without washing,” said co-owner Maria Ritzko.

Under normal circumstances, most customers bring cash, use the laundromat’s change machine, and then use the quarters for the washers. There’s even a sign saying the machine is for customers only.

But in recent weeks, they’ve noticed the amount of cash in the change machine is a lot more than the quarters in the washers.

Ritzko recently got a call from her bank asking if she had any quarters she would be willing to sell them.

“They used to hate when we brought quarters in years back. We’d bring too many in. Now they’re asking for it,” she said.

It could all be related to the fact that the U.S. government is currently limiting the amount of coins they are allocating to banks due to a shortage in its supply.

The Federal Reserve announced last week that it was limiting the amount of coins that banks could order.

In a statement, the Fed said coin deposits from banks have “declined significantly” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production of new coins has also been limited during the pandemic.

Now that many regions of the country are reopening, the Fed is seeing orders from banks for coins outpace their supply.

They’ve taken steps on their own to maximize coin production, but they said it will be awhile before things return to normal.

“Although the Federal Reserve is confident that the coin inventory issues will resolve once the economy opens more broadly and the coin supply chain returns to normal circulation patterns, we recognize that these measures alone will not be enough to resolve near-term issues,” they said in their statement.

Local banks said they are still able to obtain the coins needed for their customers.

Mauch Chunk Trust Company has received all the coins it needs, though the demand for coins fell off during the COVID-19 shutdown.

As businesses reopen, there may be more orders for coins, but there should also be more deposits of rolled coins, said Marty McGuire, Mauch Chunk Trust Company’s director of marketing.

“We’re guessing the flow of coins could start improving soon, if it is a problem for other banks. But we haven’t encountered it yet with our business customers. We can continue supplying them as we need,” he said.

At Neffs National Bank, which has a branch in Walnutport, they haven’t had any issues receiving coin orders from the Federal Reserve. They have started to roll some of the coins deposited by customers, said Michael Bailey, executive vice president and chief operating officer.

The change shortage hasn’t affected Pennsylvania’s community banks on a significant level, according to the trade group that represents them.

The Pennsylvania Community Bankers Association said their members haven’t had trouble getting the coins they need.

“We’ve done 27 calls with bankers since March 17. The coin shortage has never come up at all,” said Kevin Shivers, executive director of the PACB.

Shivers said coin deposits have been less during the pandemic, but at the same time, so has demand for coin from businesses.

Windy Gallagher, co-owner of Woods Ice Cream discovered the shortage when she went to place her regular change order. Both of the banks where they do business told her that they are dealing with a change shortage.

“They said they wouldn’t take it because they didn’t know if they would receive the change they ordered from the federal reserve,” she said.

Gallagher wasn’t surprised to hear that the shortage had something to do with banks accepting fewer coin deposits than usual.

During the pandemic, she noticed that banks weren’t accepting coin deposits. It usually involves coming into the lobby, but those were closed and the drive-thru wasn’t accepting cash deposits.

“If you go to make a deposit, you aren’t allowed at the bank. They will not take coinage at the drive-thru. You can’t even deposit it,” she said.

In their statement, the Fed said they are encouraging banks to remove barriers to allow consumers to deposit more coins.

The timing of the shortage was unfortunate for Gallagher, with her ice cream shop’s busiest week of the year - the Independence Day holiday - just around the corner.

But she made it work with the limited supplies at the bank, and even asked her employees if they would sell them their change.

“One employee said she had $92 in change, ‘OK, I’ll buy it off you,’?” she said.

In some ways they were prepared due to experience during the COVID-19 outbreak.

At the beginning of the pandemic they were only accepting cash payments.

At different times during the pandemic, they have had to overcome short supplies, shortages of everything from napkins to strawberry topping.

“I never thought it would be quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies,” she said.