January 19th, 2010 — Mintages
On December 31, 2009, the United States Mint ended sales of the popular 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin. Until recently, the final report of sales figures through the closing date were not available.
The US Mint recently released this information, indicating that final sales were 115,178. Since this is the final unaudited sales information, the final mintage may be slightly lower due to returns, order cancellations, or other adjustments.
Collectors are already starting to debate whether this level of mintage may impede or support future premiums for the coin on the secondary market. Some argue that a mintage over 100,000 creates a plentiful supply of the coins, and they will be destined to sell for a few hundred dollars above the bullion value.
Others argue that this is a one year only issue of a historic recreation of one of the most beautiful coins of all time. Most buyers are likely to hold the coin in their permanent collection, meaning that only a fraction of the total mintage will ever be offered for sale. The high demand and restrained supply will support greater premiums as time moves on.
January 18th, 2010 — Mintages
The coin mintages for the fourth and final 2009 Lincoln Cent design was recently released. The "Presidency" design has the lowest overall mintage of the four designs. The 2009-P Presidency Lincoln Cent has the lowest mintage for an individual one-cent issue since the 1950's.
For the Presidency design, there were 129,600,000 coins produced at the Philadelphia Mint and 198,000,000 coins produced at the Denver Mint. This makes a total of 327,600,000 overall coins struck for circulation.
The previous low for combined mintage for one of the designs was the Birthplace Cent with 634,800,000. The previous low for an individual issue of the 2009 Lincoln Cent was the 2009-P Birthplace Cent with 284,400,000. The latest figures represnts significanlty lower numbers.
The last time an individual Lincoln Cent struck for circulation had a lower mintage was 1955, when the San Francisco Mint produced 44,610,000.
October 19th, 2009 — Mintages
The mintage for the third design for the 2009 Lincoln Cents has been revealed. It is a step lower from the prior design, but still above the low level of the first design.
The 2009 Professional Life Cents had a combined mintage of 652 million. This is divided as 316 million coins produced at the Philadelphia Mint and 336 million coins produced at the Denver Mint.
The lowest combined mintage for 2009 Lincoln Cents remains as the Birthplace Cent with 634.8 million. The lowest individual coin mintage remains as the 2009-P Birthplace Cent at 284.4 million.
The latest figures are a contiuation of the low production experienced throughout the year. During 2008, the US Mint had produced more than 5 billion cents. This year they are on track to produce less than 3 billion across the four different designs. View complete 2009 Lincoln Cent mintages.
October 13th, 2009 — Mintages
The US Mint recently revealed the mintages for the circulation strike 2009 US Virgin Islands Quarter. Since there are six different coin designs for this year's twenty five cent coin, the US Mint produces each design for only a portion of the year before moving onto the next one. After production of one design has ended, they typically release the final production figures.
The Virgin Islands Quarter had a combined mintage of 82 million coins. This included 41 million coins produced at the Philadelphia facility and 41 million coins produced at the Denver facility. This marks another overall low in production for the 2009 quarters, narrowly lower than the prior American Samoa Quarter's combined mintage of 82.2 million.
The Territorial Quarters have had extremely low mintages compared to the prior State Quarters series. Will this result in higher values down the line?
June 3rd, 2009 — Coin News
Another new mintage low has been set for the District of Columbia & U.S. Territories Quarters series. Following the relatively high mintages for the State Quarter series, the six coin follow up had been showing very low numbers. This was due primarily to the economy, which caused an influx of old change into the system, removing the need to produce large amounts of new coins.
The latest data released was for the Guam Quarter. There were only 42,600,000 coins produced at the Denver Mint and 45,000,000 coins produced at the Philadelphia Mint. The total between the mints of 87,600,000 is less than half the number of coins produced for the District of Columbia Quarter.
These low numbers are starting to draw attention, but do they have farther to fall? The next quarters to be released will feature American Samoa, US Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands.
