U.S. circulating coin production rebounded in January with United States Mint facilities in Philadelphia and Denver striking more than 1.2 billion coins spread across cents, nickels, dimes, quarters, half-dollars and dollars.
The production pace surged 206.4% from December but slowed 18.5% from January 2019. Here’s how the month stacks up against others in the past year:
January 2019 to January 2020 Circulating Coin Production
| Month | Mintages | Rank |
| January 2020 | 1,228.08 M | 4 |
| December 2019 | 400.88 M | 13 |
| November 2019 | 898.38 M | 10 |
| October 2019 | 1,154.94 M | 6 |
| September 2019 | 939.66 M | 9 |
| August 2019 | 767.32 M | 11 |
| July 2019 | 1,202.10 M | 5 |
| June 2019 | 1,021.654 M | 8 |
| May 2019 | 485.24 M | 12 |
| April 2019 | 1,253.76 M | 3 |
| March 2019 | 1,054.90 M | 7 |
| February 2019 | 1,256.10 M | 2 |
| January 2019 | 1,507.30 M | 1 |
The Federal Reserve orders more 1-cent coins than any other denomination even as data shows it costs the U.S. Mint 1.99 cents to make and distribute each one. The Mint produced 668.4 million Lincoln cents last month, representing 54.4% of the circulating-quality coins produced in January.
Year-Over-Year
Comparing the production pace in January from December offers little value in this round of data because manufacturing totals between the two months are aways so far apart.
As for year-over-year comparisons for coins used daily by Americans, production totals:
- Declined 25.2% for Lincoln cents,
- Fell 7.4% for Jefferson nickels,
- Dropped 37.9% for Roosevelt dimes, and
- Jumped 33.7% 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. Usually in January, the U.S. Mint tends to strike both coins to the expected amounts needed for the entire year. That wasn’t the case at least for halves.
Mintages for the 2020 Kennedy half-dollar currently stand at 1.8 million from Denver and zero from Philadelphia, which will change. Last year’s half-dollar ended with equal splits of 1.7 million for Denver and Philadelphia for a combined 3.4 million.
Published mintages for the 2020 Native American dollar are 1.26 million from Denver and 1.4 million from Philadelphia for a combined 2.66 million coins. Last year’s dollar had splits of 1.54 million for Denver and 1.4 million for Philadelphia for a combined 2.94 million coins.
The U.S. Mint released rolls and bags of 2020 Native American dollars on Feb. 12. Kennedy halves are expected out on May 4.
To date, the U.S. Mint has released just one other annually issued coin with a one-year-only design — the 2020 National Park of American Samoa quarter. Final mintages for it should be available by March.
Here’s a summary of all circulating-quality coins produced last month:
US Mint Circulating Coin Production in January 2020
| Denomination | Denver | Philadelphia | Total |
| Lincoln Cents | 344,000,000 | 324,400,000 | 668,400,000 |
| Jefferson Nickels | 72,960,000 | 53,760,000 | 126,720,000 |
| Roosevelt Dimes | 82,500,000 | 91,000,000 | 173,500,000 |
| ATB Quarters | 123,200,000 | 131,800,000 | 255,000,000 |
| Kennedy Half Dollars | 1,800,000 | 0 | 1,800,000 |
| Native American $1s | 1,260,000 | 1,400,000 | 2,660,000 |
| Total | 625,720,000 | 602,360,000 | 1,228,080,000 |
In overall production totals, the Denver Mint made 625.72 million coins and the Philadelphia Mint made 602.36 million coins for the combined 1,228,080,000 coins. If the current production pace stretched through to December, the annual mintage for 2020 would top 14.7 billion coins. The U.S. Mint made over 11.9 billion coins for circulation in 2019.
