U.S. Mint production surged in January with the agency’s facilities in Denver and Philadelphia striking more than 1.5 billion coins for circulation. Those coins included in cents, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollars.
The production pace jumped 168.9% from December but slipped 5.9% from January 2018. Here’s how the month stacks up against others in the past year:
January 2018 to January 2019 Circulating Coin Production
| Month | Mintages | Rank |
| January 2019 | 1,507.30 M | 2 |
| December 2018 | 560.64 M | 13 |
| November 2018 | 1,031.24 M | 8 |
| October 2018 | 1,382.18 M | 4 |
| September 2018 | 976.82 M | 9 |
| August 2018 | 831.56 M | 12 |
| July 2018 | 1,403.16 M | 3 |
| June 2018 | 1,198.34 M | 6 |
| May 2018 | 1,291.76 M | 5 |
| April 2018 | 878.74 M | 11 |
| March 2018 | 902.924 M | 10 |
| February 2018 | 1,066.51 M | 7 |
| January 2018 | 1,601.54 M | 1 |
The Federal Reserve always orders more 1-cent coins than any other denomination even as it costs the U.S. Mint 1.82 cents to make and distribute each one. The bureau produced 894 million Lincoln cents in January, representing 59.3% of the circulating-quality coins produced for the month.
Year-Over-Year
Comparing the production output in January from December offers little value in this round of data because the two months are aways far opposite of each other.
In year-over-year comparisons for coins used daily by Americans, production totals:
- Declined 11% for Lincoln cents,
- Fell 9.7% for Jefferson nickels,
- Climbed 10.5% for Roosevelt dimes, and
- Rose 3.2% for America the Beautiful quarter dollars.
Native American $1 Coins and Kennedy half-dollars are no longer ordered by Federal Reserve Banks but they are still made in circulating quality for coin collectors. In January, the U.S. Mint tends to strike both coins to the expected amounts needed for the entire year.
Published mintages for the 2019 Kennedy half-dollar combine to 3.4 million with equal splits between Denver and Philadelphia. Last year’s half-dollar was the most produced since the one from 2001. It saw 6.1 million from Denver and 4.8 million from Philadelphia for a combined 10.9 million coins.
So far, the U.S. Mint has released two annually issued coins with one-year-only designs. They include the 2019 Lowell National Historical quarter for Massachusetts, released on Feb. 4, and the 2019 Native American $1 Coin, released on Feb. 13.
Finalized mintages for the Lowell quarter should be available by March or April.
Reported mintages for the space-themed 2019 Native American dollars are 1.4 million from Denver and 1.4 million from Philadelphia for a combined 2.8 million coins, matching last year’s dollar mintages.
Here’s a summary of all circulating-quality coins produced last month:
US Mint Circulating Coin Production in January 2019
| Denomination | Denver | Philadelphia | Total |
| Lincoln Cents | 424,800,000 | 469,200,000 | 894,000,000 |
| Jefferson Nickels | 65,280,000 | 71,520,000 | 136,800,000 |
| Roosevelt Dimes | 127,000,000 | 152,500,000 | 279,500,000 |
| ATB Quarters | 100,400,000 | 90,400,000 | 190,800,000 |
| Kennedy Half Dollars | 1,700,000 | 1,700,000 | 3,400,000 |
| Native American $1s | 1,400,000 | 1,400,000 | 2,800,000 |
| Total | 720,580,000 | 786,720,000 | 1,507,300,000 |
In overall production totals, the Philadelphia Mint struck 786.72 million coins and the Denver Mint struck 720.58 million coins for the combined 1,507.3 million coins. If the current production pace stretched through to December, the annual mintage for 2019 would top 18 billion coins. The Mint made over 13.1 billion coins for circulation in 2018.
