Fed Holds 16-Year Surplus of $1 Coins

The Federal Reserve has enough inventory of $1 coins to match circulation needs for nearly 16 years, according to an estimate revealed in the agency’s 2022 annual report to Congress about Presidential dollars.

Published in December, the report indicated that the projection considered how many $1 coins were needed over the past five years. It also noted that $83 million were pulled from Reserve Bank vaults for commerce through the 12 months ending June 30, 2022. At that time, inventories of dollars fell to about 928 million. The agency has since published another two quarterly periods of inventory data, reducing the number to 888 million dollars, marking another 40 million drop through the last six months of 2022.

Reserve Bank inventories of $1 coins peaked to 1.44 billion in the third quarter of 2012. They have trended lower since that peak by several million every month.

The United States Mint produces, sells and then delivers circulating coins to Reserve Banks to support its service to commercial banks and other financial institutions. Most of the Fed’s vaulted dollars are Presidential $1 Coins. As directed by Public Law 109-145, the U.S. Mint was required to produce them in commemoration of former American presidents from 2007 to 2016. However, the public preferred paper money over clad dollars, and inventories of $1 coins resultantly soared by as much as 298 million a year. The trajectory had Fed officials talking about needing more storage space.

The build-up was eventually checked in December 2011, when the stockpile had reached 1.42 billion coins, after Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner halted $1 coin production for circulation.

Today, the U.S. Mint still produces clad $1 coins but only for collectible products offered to the public. These include one a year featuring a design honoring the important contributions made by Indian tribes and individual Native Americans and four a year depicting American innovation.

As a comparison to the most Fed ordered U.S. denomination for circulation, the U.S Mint struck over 6.3 billion Lincoln cents in 2022 alone. Ironically, it costs the Mint 2.72 cents to make and distribute each one.

This last table shows Fed $1 coin inventories, payments and receipts since 2007.

$1 Coin Quarterly Inventories, Payments, and Receipts
(Millions of pieces)