Interesting take. I never thought of that. I guess the PTB believe there isn’t that much in coinage out there being held so might as well suffer a slight loss versus reissuing the coins.
It’s a no-brainer hedge when you think about it. My classic aprocryphal tale is the German minister with the bathtub full of decades of collection plate pfennings he never bothered to roll up and take to the bank. It kept value enough for bread etc no matter what.