CIRCULATING U.S. TYPE COIN MINTAGES IN ASCENDING ORDER

BY JOHN H. MACMILLAN

1)     The "top 20" in terms of low mintage are very tough for the collector of moderate means. High quality reproductions of many are available at moderate cost. Companies such as the Gallery Mint Museum and Royal Oak Mint sell excellent quality, original size reproductions with the government mandated word COPY prominently displayed.

2)     Surviving mintages of 18^th and most nineteenth century type coins are quite low, making the numerical rankings quite deceiving. In particular, the pre 1834 gold was extensively melted, as its metallic gold content came to exceed its face value. Less than 2% of these survive (ref 4). Thus those types ranked 2, 5, 9-11, 14, 23, 26, 35 and 41 are far, far rarer than official mintages would indicate. For example, the single year 1808 quarter eagle type coin has an estimated survival rate of 50-60 specimens from a mintage of 2,710 pieces (ref 4). 18^th and early nineteenth century copper and silver type also have very low survival rates, with high quality specimens particularly rare.

3)     Extensive meltings of other gold coins occurred after the 1933 gold recall. 1954 data published by the mint indicate that the mint alone melted 39% of all double eagles struck, 37% of all eagles, 35% of all half eagles and 15.4% of all quarter eagles! (ref 3). Numismatists also know that 270,232,722 silver dollars (mostly Morgans, some seated's?) were melted in 1918 under the Pittman act, thus the total Morgan mintage of 656,989,387 must be taken as the original pre-melt figure. Mass meltings of 90% silver coins occurred in the nineteen sixties and in 1980 when silver reached $50 per ounce.

4)     There are some "sleepers" in the series. For example, the 1840-1857 half cents have a low total mintage, but are moderately priced compared to other type coins of comparable mintage. Low popularity of the half cent series is largely responsible. Also the 1921 high relief Peace dollar, at ~ 1,000,000 mintage, appears to be a good value at present levels. The $10.00 GOLD 1907-1908 INDIAN NO MOTTO and $2.50 GOLD 1834-1839 CLASSIC HEAD also appear to me to be undervalued in today's market.

5)     Silver state quarters are a good value. They are low mintage, and in demand both as a type coin and by collectors of the state quarter series. They are widely dispersed among collectors.

6)     The mintage data show the explosive growth of the American economy in the 19th and 20th centuries through westward expansion, industrialization and concurrent population increases. While localized mintage dips do occur, as in the 1930's depression, the overall mintages over the decades always increase for the "big four" of cent, nickel, dime and quarter.  The half dollar and dollar are now basically non circulating collector coins.   The half dollar once circulated extensively, but after 1964 it was hoarded, probably out of nostalgia for the Kennedy era. A local vending machine swallowed one of mine recently with neither credit nor refund!  Table I shows a breakdown of the mintage ranking figures by century.

TABLE 1, TYPE COINS MINTAGE RANKING BY CENTURY, 161 FINAL MINTAGES

		TOP 20 ( 20 lowest mintages)
CENTURY	18TH	19TH	20TH/21ST	% 18TH	% 19TH	% 20TH/21ST
NUMBER	15	4	1	75	20	5
		TOP 50
CENTURY	18TH	19TH	20TH/21ST	% 18TH	% 19TH	% 20TH/21ST
NUMBER	22	22	6	44	44	12
		TOP 100
CENTURY	18TH	19TH	20TH/21ST	% 18TH	% 19TH	% 20TH/21ST
NUMBER	22	67	11	22	67	11
		BOTTOM 61 ( 61 highest mintages)
CENTURY	18TH	19TH	20TH/21ST	% 18TH	% 19TH	% 20TH/21ST
NUMBER	0	17	44	0	28	62

    As one can see, the bottom 61 highest mintages are heavily weighted to 20/21st century coinage, with most being in the hundreds of millions to multiple billions. The top 20 lowest mintages are heavily weighted to the 18th century, as would be expected for the infant, largely agricultural economy. The workhorse denominations of cent through quarter show the most explosive growth from 1900 onwards. The final figures for the clad Roosevelt dime, Jefferson nickel and clad Washington eagle back quarter could dwarf some of the highest final mintages already listed. The old style clad quarter could be resumed in 2009, so its "final" figure through 1998 is not listed. Through 1998 35,455,052,592 clad business strikes and 85,596,592 clad proofs had been produced, a lot of quarters!  The final  total mintages for the clad state quarters will also add up to a stupendous figure. Table 2 lists mintages of current type coins excluding state quarters  through 2002. The Jefferson nickel design could be final later this year, although what happens after 2005 is anybody's guess.

 

TABLE 2	CURRENT TYPE COIN MINTAGES THROUGH 2002 (a)
TYPE	BUSINESS STRIKES	PROOFS
CENT, COPPER/ZINC 1982-	217,413,872,337	48,662,477
JEFFERSON NICKEL 1938-*	43,870,644,813	117,478,703
CLAD DIMES 1965-	59,396,420,858	95,560,671
CLAD QUARTERS 1965-1998**	35,455,052,334	85,596,592
CLAD HALF 1971-***	2,246,546,645	79,850,536
SACAGAWEA DOLLAR 2000-	1,427,061,110	N/A
* NO WAR NICKELS INCLUDED
** NO BICENTENNIAL INCLUDED
*** NO BICENTENNIAL INCLUDED
a) COMPUTED FROM DATA IN REFS 1, 2   AND 5 WITH MICROSOFT EXCEL

7)     Despite the difficulty with the top 20, there are still over 140 type coins, including series still in production, that are  available to the collector of moderate means. Table 3 lists in ascending order all U.S. type coins with final mintages from 1792 to date. It was generated from data in references 1), 2) and 5), added and sorted with Microsoft Excel software.

    I hope all collectors enjoy these tables!

TABLE 3, CIRCULATING U.S. TYPE COIN  FINAL MINTAGES IN ASCENDING ORDER

1) Yeoman, R.S. " A Guide Book of United States Coins",  Western Publishing Company, Racine Wisconsin, "The Red Book",  2003 edition.

2) Bowers, Q. David, "United States Coins by Design Types",  published by Bowers and Merena Galleries, Woolfeboro, N.H. 2nd edition, 1989.

3) ), "The Comprehensive Catalog of and Encyclopedia of U.S. coins", 2^ND Edition, 1998, by the editors of COIN WORLD.

4) Garrett, Jeff and Guth, Ron, "One Hundred Greatest U.S. Coins", H.E. Harris and Company,  2003.

5) Coin World published mintage figures, SEE http://www.statequarters.com/News/2002/state_mintages.asp

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