June 1st, 2010
Today will mark the official circulation release date for the Yellowstone National Park Quarter. This is the second release of the new America the Beautiful Quarters Program, which was launched this year.
The reverse design of the quarter features a view of the famous Old Faithful geyser as it erupts. An American Bison or Buffalo appears in the foreground, with another diminutive Buffalo in the background. The inscriptions around the outer rim read "Wyoming", "Yellowstone", "E Pluribus Unum", and the date "2010".
Although the coins are being released into circulation, it may be difficult to locate them. Unlike the State Quarters Program, banks do not have the ability to order unmixed quantities of the newly released designs for their customers. It will basically be the luck of the draw if banks receive some of the new quarters within their regular change orders.
The US Mint will sell bags and rolls of the new coins, providing collectors with one avenue for purchasing the coins, albeit at a premium. The two roll sets ($20 face value) are priced at $32.95 each. The 100-coin bags ($25 face value) are priced at $35.95 each.
A launch ceremony will be held on June 3, at Yellowstone National Park within view of Old Faithful. For those lucky enough to be able to attend, new rolls of the quarters will be available for exchange at face value.
May 27th, 2010
Today, the US Mint releases the 90% silver proof versions of the 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters. These coins are released in a five coin set, which closely follows the release of the five coin proof set featuring the regular clad composition versions of the coins.
From 1992, the US Mint has struck dimes, quarters, and half dollars in the traditional silver composition for sale to collectors in specially issued sets. This has included an annual Silver Proof Set since 1992 and separate Quarters Silver Proof Sets since 2004.
The 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set will contain the Hot Springs National Park Quarter, Yellowstone National Park Quarter, Yosemite National Park Quarter, Grand Canyon National Park Quarter, and Mount Hood National Forest Quarter. Each coin will be struck in proof format at the San Francisco Mint and carry the "S" mint mark. The coins will have a composition of 90% silver and 10% copper.
The five coins are packaged in a protective plastic lens and illustrated cardboard box. The sets aren't cheap, priced at $32.95 each. This is a $3 price increase over the price of last year's silver proof quarters set, which contained six coins.
May 26th, 2010
The first production figures are available for the newly launched America the Beautiful Quarters series. In keeping with the recent trend of declining mintage for circulating coins, the Hot Springs Quarter production figures mark the lowest circulating production level for an individual quarter since the 1950's.
The Philadelphia Mint produced 30,600,000 coins and the Denver Mint produced 29,000,000 coins for a total of 59,600,000. The previous quarter released featuring the Northern Mariana Islands had a total combined production of 72,800,000.
In the eyes of collectors, the declining mintages may be a good reason to collect the new series. Low mintage coins are traditionally seen as key dates, although the levels aren't really in the same league as some classic key date rarities. Will America the Beautiful Quarters Mintages continue the downward trend? How low can the mintages go?
May 22nd, 2010
The first of the 2010 Jefferson Nickels were produced by the United States Mint during April 2010. So far production has been limited to a scant 1.68 million coins from the Philadelphia Mint facility. Is this a potential key date in the making?
Last year, the 2009 Jefferson Nickel had a relatively small circulation production of 39,840,000 coins from the Philadelphia Mint and 46,800,000 coins from the Denver Mint. These numbers caught the attention of collectors since they were the lowest circulation mintages since 1959. The coins were also unusually elusive in the channels of circulation.
The 2010 Jefferson Nickel just might have a chance to set even lower mintages. There has been recent talk about changing the composition of cents and nickels due to the fact that it costs the US Mint more to produce the coins than they are worth. The nickel actually contents copper and nickel that are worth more than the face value! I think this is part of the reason for the restrained production of nickels.
So far, none of the few 2010 nickels produced have surfaced. This appearance of the first nickels and the ongoing production figures for the denomination will be something to watch this year.
May 18th, 2010
With the price of gold at an all time high, many people are turning their attention to gold coins. The United States Mint just began offering their 24 karat gold bullion coins, the American Gold Buffalo. This series was introduced in 2006 in addition to the existing 22 karat American Gold Eagle.
The US Mint began sales of the 2010 Gold Buffalo bullion coins on April 29, 2010. Last year, the 2009-dated bullion coins went on sale October 15 and sold out by December 4. During this period, the US Mint sold 200,000 coins.
This year, bullion sales are off to a fast start with 90,000 of the one ounce coins sold through mid-May. If the US Mint can keep these coins available throughout the remainder of the year, the annual sales should break the record high of 323,000 set in 2006 for the inaugural year.
The US Mint will begin sales of the 2010 Proof Gold Buffalo on June 3, 2010. Once again this will be earlier than the start date for the 2009-dated proof coin, which was October 29. The US Mint sold about 50,000 of the collectible proof coins with sales ended on March 29, 2010.
