The Royal Mint in the UK plans product ion according to demand from banks and Post Offices, and to the requirements/guidance of the Treasury. I’m not aware of any national shortage or even notable local shortages.
Another Brit here: I haven’t used cash in months. I had £40 in my wallet in March, I think I still have it. Every shop I use, large or local, uses contactless card payment. Even market stalls have card payment machines these days.
Probably that’s because we really don’t need tens as such; in terms of conveniently and easily handling cash, two fives are almost as good one ten. Not using ten dolkar bills frees up another slot in the cash drawer, which can accommodate more rolls of pennies and nickels…
I live in Germany, which is a cash-prone society - the percentage of cashless payments in everyday transactions is significantly lower than in other European countries (though there is an upwards trend). But the key difference between America and any euro area country is that American coins are low value. The highest denomination that is in really widespread use is the quarter. Compare that to Europe, where the two euro coin, worth almost ten times as much as a quarter dollar, is very common. As a consequence, Europeans don’t have the instinctive feeling that coins are worthless items that you just let accumulate at home.
So Brits, when will your pay toilets get a card option: that’s one time when you don’t want to worry about having exact change! 
I’d probably carry coins around me in America both if some of them had real value and I customarily carried a backpack. I don’t like carrying loads of coins in my pants and worrying about them falling out.
Most people these days charge everything, and a growing number of people don’t even carry money. So, why would there be a shortage of any kind of currency?
The only possibility I can think of, and this is just pure speculation, is that one way people are preparing for the Big Crash is by hoarding coins, which are considered by some to be the only “real” money.
When I was a child, my mom and I were in a store near the counter. A big man suddenly walked up and plunked a SACK on the counter full of coins in preparation for payment. I guess I was looking at him with wide eyes because he said, “This is the only real money, girlie!” I have never forgotten that! LOL
I think the idea is that when you only use cash once in a blue moon, you tend to dump the change in a bowl at home. You don’t even have a place to keep it in your wallet or purse. When you use cash every day, you reuse the change you got earlier.
More than a few businesses around me have signs up saying “No Change, Please pay exact or pay electronically”.
Because of that, I decided I would clean out my change jar. Ended up with almost $100 rolled. Called a few of the businesses - hey, want to buy my change? Every single one declined.
Even the bank said no thanks.
There’s a lot of resistance to getting rid of useless coins in the US for some reason. The half cent was retired in 1857 when it had the purchasing power of over a dime today (about $.14 according to a 2014 article), but getting rid of pennies and nickels is unpalatable for some reason. Quarters and dollars (to an extent) are really the only coins that are really worth enough to worry about, but if you’re a store a ‘no change’ policy is easier to implement, enforce, and explain than a ‘no change below a quarter’ policy.
I don’t think other countries keep around such piddling denominations, and I think it clogs up the coin supply chain in the US. If we were just using quarters and dollars, it would be easy to make more and to ship more around, and it would be worthwhile for businesses to do it instead of just saying ‘no change’. I think it’s trying to keep up with all of the ‘costs more to make than it’s worth’ change that is causing the problems.
On the side note about $10 bills, I’ve never really gotten why they’re in the mix (same with $2 and $50 bills). $1, $5, $20, and $100 makes sense for convenience of not having a mess of low bills (you never need more than 4 bills to make an amount), but carrying a $10 instead of two $5s or a $2 instead of two $1s doesn’t seem to be worth the hassle of dealing with another type of bill.
I imagine there are pay toilets in London (it’s been a while since I spent time there, for obvious reasons), but I can’t remember the last time I saw one (excepting train termini). For that very particular circumstance you ask a reasonable question, and I don’t know the answer.
On the south coast (around the Brighton area, say, where we have been a few times recently) I see plenty of public toilets; and as they’re all (so far as I know) free, payment isn’t an issue. So that part of your question I can answer.
j
BTW - the reason we’ve been to the south coast resorts but not to London recently? You can drive to the former; you really need to catch a train to the latter.
Coins in loos is a bit off-topic, but there are varying practices. The ones in main rail termini in the UK were coin-paid, 20p or 30p, but following complaints, I believe most have now dropped charging. On the other hand, the local authority one in Trafalgar Square is still charging 20p AND has no change machine available, as I discovered today. But (call it a function of my age) I have a mental shortlist of shops and cafés in the area with free loos. FWIW, main rail termini in Germany and the Netherlands seem to have sub-contracted theirs to a commercial outfit that charges, but gives you a token for a free go on some other occasion (bur it’s on paper so I imagine it’s rarely used).
All of which is by the by to the basic point that we don’t seem to have a problem with more pro-active management of coin supplies, not only in terms of responding to varying demand, but also withdrawing and replacing them as necessary (e.g., our decimalisation in 1971, or the introduction of the euro in 1999, or replacing our £1 coin design because of forgeries). People are given due notice of the deadline for invalidity of whichever coin it is, and that’s that.
Many vending machines in the UK ONLY accept plastic - particularly parking metres.
Yes, and according to Forbes and the Mint, people havent been cashing in their jars of hoarded coains.
You just deposit the coin at your bank. No need to ask them.
And there is Coinstar, also.
I pay for metered via a phone app.
I once heard a Jack Benny radio program circa 1960 where one of the jokes was that Beverly Hills, California was so rich that “even the parking meters take credit cards”. Little did he know…
I’ve hardly used any cash at all since March, so this post is only in reference to my habits pre-COVID.
I don’t know why people complain so much about coins and dump them somewhere when they get home. I keep a half-dozen or so random coins in my pocket, and I actually use them when I pay for something. For example, If my purchase came to $12.28, I might take three pennies from my pocket, and give the cashier $15.03. I end up with $2.75 change - two pieces of paper, and three coins whose value (according to what y’all are posting) is significant.
To me, this is effortless, and it helps keep the coins in circulation. But maybe it is more difficult for the average person, me being a math geek.
I would do partial change as well and would keep a small mix of coins in my pocket to do that.
But these days I don’t use cash for any purchases. I do use cash for services, if the worker prefers it. So people like my housemaid, or gardener, or tennis coach all get cash.
I hardly use plastic either anymore. Just about everywhere accepts smartphones’ touchless pay.
[quote=“Keeve, post:37, topic:916762”]
… If my purchase came to $12.28, I might take three pennies from my pocket, and give the cashier $15.03. I end up with $2.75 change … ./quote]
I would fear that this tactic might cause considerable delay in these modern times. I have encountered more than one cashier with very poor math skills recently.
Yes, that has happened to me too. I usually tell the cashier gently, “It’s okay. Don’t worry. The register will figure it out.” And then the cashier is often happily surprised at how simple it is to give me the three quarters!