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What are Mintage Numbers?
FunwithMPL
Posts: 328 ✭✭✭
Should it be the number of coins delivered to the Coniner. Or the number of coins that actuality were distributed or sold by the mint. I would think distributed or sold.
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If the mintages were based on the numbers distributed or sold, Prez Dollars would be among the greatest rarities in the world! 😉
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
My understanding is that mintage is the number minted/struck minus any that are destroyed by the mint.
Ideally "sold" or "distributed" would be the same #, but as suggested, there are cases where minted coins get warehoused, in some cases for many decades. To complicate matters, the destruction of certain coins does not get deducted from the recognized annual mintage, such as the case of Morgan silver dollars that were melted down during WWI, if I recall correctly.
The only truly reliable figure available is the number minted, minus errors/destroyed....after that, it becomes a bit nebulous... Cheers, RickO
I feel that “mintage” should represent the actual number of coins produced and that there should be a separate “distribution” number that takes meltings, etc. into account.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
ricko and MFeld, I could not agree with you both more. Problem I do beleave the mint did not keep very good records with coins destroyed and/or melted. Case in point the mint records show that over the 1,000 1909 VDB Matte Proof Lincoln were struck while other records show only 420 were sold. No one knows what happen to the other 700. So perhaps we must look at each coin one at a time? I do feel the mintage for the 1909 VDB MPL should be 420. Carl
Mintage numbers should be those that were struck by and fell from the dies, less anything immediately destroyed at the Mint for imperfections.
Anything destroyed down the line is important to know, but doesn't change the mintage number.
For instance, there are modern Monaco coins struck in platinum, 4,000 examples minted and 2,500 melted five years later by the distributor. 4,000 remains the mintage, but yeah you want to know the later figure too. The Gadoury Catalog typically shows both, as typically does SCWC.
Another one to look at for circulation strikes is the 1876-CC 20c piece. It would be nice to know how many they melted to adjust the "mintage" down from 10,000 pieces. I like MFeld's idea of two numbers.
The number of coins struck.
How many were available to be distributed to the public or collectors at the time would be my guess on how many were available, not counting the press operators set-up pieces and scrap that number would be much higher but not available to sell or collect if they ran 15000 pieces through the press and only 12000 were good I would say the production was 12000, But what number are you looking at, total blanks or number of saleable items that are collectable. How many pieces are able to be in collectors hands, or total number of blanks run through a machine?
How bout Classic Commems?
1Buffan, I would go with how many piece are able to be in collectors hands. If the coin weren't available to the collectors then how would the collectors get them. I guss we will never know with some of the dates.
only number that matters is the number of them out there. Coins that were struck and then destroyed never existed collecting world.
Keep an open mind, or get financially repressed -Zoltan Pozsar
No, they WERE delivered to the Fed that ordered them... at least for the early big mintage years.
In the later years when they are NIFC, that's an interesting question...
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