Comments on: US Mint Coin Production in 2014 Tops 13.2 Billion

By: Munzen

Munzen — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 18:34:08 +0000

Jim, my 2¢ is that Congress is so spineless, so beholden to nay-sayers, so much in the grip of lobbyists (can we say the zinc industry and Crane Paper?), and so concerned with posturing (HOW many votes to repeal the ACA?) that almost nothing sensible will make it into law.

And I’m not just referring to coin legislation, btw 🙁

By: jim

jim — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 05:12:26 +0000

And yet Congress still won’t take notice of the high volume that’s required every year and stop the waste of minting coins that cost more than their face value. It’s way past time to make a change like Canada and others have done in the past.

By: Kahoola

Kahoola — Thu, 15 Jan 2015 06:10:05 +0000

Again the orphan San Francisco ATB quarters do not rate a column in the circulation quality ATB production figures. It is as if they do not exist. Is the Mint ashamed of them? Have they all been abducted by aliens and now sit on some other planet?

By: Vachon

Vachon — Wed, 14 Jan 2015 16:38:03 +0000

@jim : The thing with pennies is that they’re not worth the trouble of using. Their attrition rate is nearly 100% meaning many cents just get used once (when given out in change) and sit around for weeks or months at a time before getting used again or turned into a CoinSTAR. That’s also why you’ll frequently come across cents made in the 1970s that still have nearly all their luster intact even though from what we’ve been told, a 40+ year old coin should be worn nearly slick.

This is true for all our circulating coins and it’s even affecting quarters now. Working as a cashier I’ve noticed cents typically stop showing obvious signs of circulation by the mid-1960s; nickels by mid-1970s (heavy wear stops by about the early 1950s); dimes by the mid-1980s; and quarters don’t show much wear after the early 1990s. State Quarters (or the last eagle ones from the late 1990s) that are now 15 years old should be showing significant wear but they tend to look fairly unused despite.

I’ve yet to see a clad dime or quarter that’s been worn down to a slick (or even more than the slightest wearing into the outer edge’s lettering) and their earliest examples are now 50 years old, well past the typical circulation lifetime stated.

On a side note, the total production of ATB quarters from 2010-2014 is now almost equal to the first year of State Quarter production in 1999 (short like 90 million pieces). The program’s half over and only just now cutting into the prior program’s second year.

By: Vadim

Vadim — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 04:05:22 +0000

With so much pennies made, how come I can’t get new rolls from a bank. All I want is a roll or two! They never have them. Anyone has a suggestion on where I can get them?

By: dale

dale — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 23:57:28 +0000

yea. redskin fans are picking them up to use in game toss !!!

By: dale

dale — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 23:53:12 +0000

and slowly the copper penny disappears ,,,,from our change,

By: Brad

Brad — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 19:08:34 +0000

Don’t get your undies in a bind, Jim

By: jim

jim — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 17:43:16 +0000

They made 8 billion pennies? Where did they all go? They’re coins, they don’t wear out like dollar bills, they should last for years – do we have that many hoarders?

And half dollars – during the 50th year anniversary of the coin where they had so many different varieties of finishes and sentimental reasons for buying they ended up selling 5 million fewer.

Native American $1 coins went up by 5 million. Why did that happen? Why the sudden interest in Native American $1 coins or the 2014 version anyway? Has the mint done any kind of analysis to understand why these numbers changed so dramatically?