The Money Boat: Coins, Climate Change and the Caribbean

A friend who works for the monetary authority of a Caribbean island nation was in Chicago for an international money conference recently. Representatives from banking centers around the world had converged to discuss a crushing array of concerns---but these folks are particularly focused on cash.

Not cash in the abstract; but the bills and coins in your pocket right now.

And they are really worried about pennies.

According to my friend (and, apparently, the world's money makers), if you have coins sitting around your house, out of circulation, you are contributing to an international coin crisis which is forcing the world's mints to make more and more of them. And it is pricey. It costs 3 cents to stamp out each and every one of the world's lowliest coins---a serious losing proposition.

This got me wondering about my pal's island nation...  I've been there a number of times and have never seen a mint... Where do the coins and bills come from?

Turns out, their money is minted in Europe. Bills are flown to the islands regularly. But coins are heavy and bulky, so they are floated in freighters annually.

Yup, there's a money boat.

My head was swimming... Given recent headlines, pirates seem a legitimate concern (hence the requirement that I not mention her nation's name or where the coin stamping takes place in this post)... After visions of sunken gold doubloons cleared my head, I got to thinking about some roundabout climate connections.

Two global warming tidbits popped into my head...the first being an earlier Switchboard post from Phil about the US Mint asking folks to spend their pennies so that the government would not have to expend so much in the way of energy and water resources to make new ones...and the second being discussions of the carbon footprint of ocean-going vessels (while they are very fuel efficient, they unfortunately use one of the dirtiest fuels around---listen to Rich Kassel on the subject).

My friend is starting a campaign similar to the U.S. Mint's, with public outreach that would attempt to get islanders to cash in their coins. I asked whether climate change would be part of the pitch---after all, living on an island, the global warming issue should help motivate her countrymen to stop hoarding coins?

The answer was surprising.

Despite the inordinate impact that climate change would likely have through sea level rises on a low lying island chain, most folks in her country are largely unaware of the issue. There is a movement afoot to change that, especially in the schools, but still engagement on the issue is limited.

So, instead, they will focus their coin campaign on the economics. And given the world economy, I guess everything really does come down to dollars and cents...

...or coins and bills anyway...

Nine Centsphoto by Jonathan Pobre via Flickr