LOOSE CHANGE: OCTOBER 26, 2025

The market for junk silver, primarily pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver coinage, is currently experiencing an unprecedented liquidity crisis. This disruption is stemming from severe refining backlogs and an associated spike in the cost of financing silver, which has effectively frozen the process by which scrap and less-than-.999-fine silver is converted into investment-grade bullion. The result is a growing disconnect between the spot price of silver and the real-world ease of buying or selling physical metal, placing a strain on both retail and wholesale market participants.

Refiners have been inundated with material, partly due to Americans liquidating silver assets in response to high prices. However, the true breaking point has been a massive surge in silver lease rates—the interest rate paid to borrow physical silver. In normal times, refiners borrow silver or cash at low rates to finance the metal while it is being processed. Recently, these lease rates have skyrocketed from typical single-digit percentages to levels nearing 100% or more. This makes it uneconomical for refiners to accept and hold new material, as the financing costs wipe out any potential profit.

To read the complete article, see:
The Silver Freeze: Refining Backlogs Create a Liquidity Crisis for Junk Silver (https://coinweek.com/the-silver-freeze-refining-backlogs-create-a-liquidity-crisis-for-junk-silver/)

From the US phasing out the penny to Germany's push for cash payment rounding, the relationship between coins and banknotes is transforming—but coins are far from obsolete. While banknotes grow as a store of value, coins continue to play a vital role in everyday transactions, supported by smart denominational strategies and durable innovations. Explore how central banks are adapting currency structures, balancing tradition with efficiency, and ensuring coins remain essential in the diverse ecosystem of cash.

This article addresses recent statistical trends of both payment instruments from various angles. It will start with some general statistics about coins vs. notes. Thereafter, it will focus on the note/coin boundary and trends in the issuance of new coin vs. note denominations. It will conclude with a study of the replacement of low-end paper notes on the one hand with high-value coins and the other with more durable note substrates.

To read the complete article, see:
Global Developments in Coins v Banknotes (https://cashessentials.org/global-developments-in-coins-v-banknotes/)

Reginald Dwayne Betts carjacked a man who was asleep in his car in a parking lot in Fairfax County, Virginia. Betts, who was 16 at the time, was tried as an adult and spent nearly a decade in state prison, much of that time in solitary confinement.

Books weren't allowed in "the hole." But the men in the prison devised a pulley system using torn sheets and pillowcases to pass books from the general population to people in solitary.

Betts started writing every day and reading anything he could get his hands on. Books transformed him, he says, revealing that other ways of living were possible.

When Betts got out, he earned his bachelor's degree, then a law degree from Yale Law School. He became a poet and an advocate for prison reform, as well as a MacArthur "genius grant" recipient for his work with his nonprofit Freedom Reads, which installs libraries in prisons across the country.

To read the complete article, see:
A smuggled book changed his life. Now he's built 500 prison libraries. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2025/10/24/smuggled-book-changed-his-life-now-hes-built-500-prison-libraries/)

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