Kicker - $1 million in loose change

NICK EICHER, HOST: America’s central bank, the Federal Reserve, has said it’s working with the U.S. mint to resolve the coin shortage. Maybe you’ve heard about this: of all the strange economic effects of COVID, we don’t have enough coins circulating.

Well, I’ve got an idea: Loop in the TSA.

Just read that the Transportation Security Administration in its most recent report to Congress said it collects around a million dollars a year in loose change at airports around the country.

Biggest losses: New York’s JFK, San Francisco, Miami, and—to no one’s surprise—Las Vegas, where people lose money all the time.

But this lost change in the most recent fiscal year adds up to precisely $926,030.44. Granted, $20,000 of it was foreign.

But the point is, maybe the TSA can make a dent in the problem here. Harried travelers emptying their pockets, in a rush to make a flight, totally distracted: quite often they forget cash and coin.

The law says if it can’t return the money to those who lost it, TSA gets to spend it.

I say it’s time to do the patriotic thing and help solve the coin shortage.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

(Photo/iStock)

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