It just took five years

I received a 2013-D dime in change at the Crystal Cafe yesterday.

We are in the ninth month of the calendar year so there really shouldn’t be anything noteworthy about receiving such a coin in change.

While it is probably inaccurate to make blanket statements, I will write it this way: This is the first current year dime that I remember receiving in Iola since the financial crisis backed up coin distribution through the nation’s banking system.

Iola is at the ragged edge of nowhere when it comes to coin distribution.

We put more coins back into the system than we take out, so new issues take a while to come here in a good year.

Major cities are just the opposite.

New coins can be spotted in a good economic year within days of the change of the calendar year.

Even in bad years the coins come out much more quickly than in rural Wisconsin.

I have received 2013 coins, including dimes, as I have traveled around the country.

Sure, there are new looking coins being used in Iola, but in recent years they have been dated a year or two behind the calendar.

It is nice to feel more connected to current coinage.

Interestingly, this year I have received three or four of the 2005 Bison nickels, which is probably the most that I have received in any year since they were issued.

It is also my impression that I have received more 2009 Lincoln cents than I ever did in 2009. Still, it is not many. Interestingly, it is the second design of him sitting on the log that has been most numerous.

Impressions can be deceiving, I know. I do not keep a tally sheet of Bison nickels or 2009 Lincolns so I cannot offer statistics. Without such evidence, caveats are in order.

But if impressions count, then the coin distribution system is finally getting back to where it was in 2007 and 2008 before Lehman Brothers failed and our financial world changed.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2013 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."