Coin is the new victim of the coronavirus in the United States

The mint house in the United States of America has been an unexpected victim of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which prompted stores and commercial centers to accept electronic payment in exchange for cash or pay the exact value of the products.

The US currency mint, US Mint, said in a statement that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a decrease in the demand for coins in circulation in the category of penny, nickel and dime and cut the quarters of the dollar used by the American people and companies in their daily transactions.

In spite of the increase in work in coin minting companies in June to meet the increasing demand for coin, the outbreak of the Corona virus affected the behavior of Americans in the use and circulation among them.

The company statement stated that there are large quantities of coins in the country, but the slow pace of circulation means that they may not be available when needed at times, calling on the American public to start spending or depositing or exchanging coins in financial institutions.

The novel pandemic of the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the suspension of mostly personal shopping activities during the closing procedures, which affected the decrease in the circulation of coins and their use in laundry machines, public transportation vehicles or parking lots for vehicles, activities that use coins heavily.

The US Federal Reserve, which controls the minting house, US Mint, said in a statement issued in June: "With the closure of commercial institutions such as retail stores, bank branches, transit authorities and laundries, commercial activities in which the currency enters our society has slowed, and they have stopped trading The natural."

The directives issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also aggravated the problem, which recommended using the option of paying with bank cards via touch or a mobile phone and minimizing dealing with the currency as much as possible because cash transactions and currencies tend to cause direct physical contact between shoppers and sellers-which conflicts with social spacing instructions recommended by public health experts.

Rachel Graham, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, says smooth and soft surfaces such as door handles and table tops have the ability to transmit the virus more than porous surfaces such as paper currencies and tissues, which means they will lock up the virus and prevent its transmission.

One study indicates that the virus can live up to four hours on copper and zinc, which is the material from which pennies are made, while research published in the Lancet magazine showed that the virus takes about four days to stay in paper money.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, "We are still learning more about the virus and its transmission and we do not think this is one of the main outbreaks of new infection of the Corona virus, but it recommends routinely cleaning and disinfecting surfaces."