The State Bank of India (SBI) and Bank of Baroda (BoB) have recently confirmed that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has not supplied coins from several months.

RBI deputy general manager K Mohan said that the requirement of coins by the different currency chests which are handled by different banks is more than the current supply of coins.

There was also a time lag and difference in the quantity of coins supplied as the Margao branch of SBI was supplied coins of one and two rupees in February this year while BoB got supplies around October-November last year.

The difference between supply and demand is also evident as around 500 bags would have been required in the denominations from Rs one to five coins while the supply was around 60 bags each for the one and two rupee coins.

It is interesting to learn that in the absence of coins, beggars have proved instrumental as several beggars selling coins to traders at a decent premium.