Why has the mint produced 3,080,000 P and 3,080,000 D 2003 Sacs?

Steve27

Are they expecting to sell that many bags/rolls/mint sets?

flaminio

Rumors of the Sackie's death have been greatly exaggerated. Despite the bad press, it is being used in certain, limited markets (mostly transit districts and post office vending machines).

Steve27

Is that true of the 2002s as well?

Morganluver

Wishful thinking and probably to justify all the expense of R&D. It's just another version of the SBA and unless or until they eliminate the Dollar bill, will have the same fate.

wayneherndon

Steve27,

I would assume these would be used for Mint Sets as well. Between Mint Sets, bags and rolls, the quantitiy is probably about right.

WH

Barry

Which dates are they selling to Columbia and Ecuador?

cladking

In all probability these are all that are expected to sell in bags and rolls. They
likely wanted to have ample supplies in case sales are better than expected.
Mint set production was decoupled from regular business strike production back
around '97. Mint set coins are no longer included in the figures for regular issue.
These numbers only appear with the mint sales numbers.

Conder101

<< <i>Why has the mint produced 3,080,000 P and 3,080,000 D 2003 Sacs? >>

Because that is about how many 2002 pieces they were able to get collectors to buy at $35.50 per $25 face value roll. They figure if we did it once, we'll do it again.

JD

Because they had the budget and if they didn't spend it they would have lost it. It's called special interest. They'll need to retire the $1 bill before the coin takes off.

richbeat

Here is an excerpt from Ron Meyer's article "Out of Circulation?," which appears on page 32 of the July 2002 issue of COINage. I've posted this before and questioned it:

"For the immediate future, officials said, the Mint would cease making 'golden dollars' for banks, retailers and others to use in commerce, but it would produce a relatively small number--about 10 million--for collectors."

"The 10 million would be in addition to the 6 million Sacagawea dollars turned out in the first three months of 2002 for general circulation."

Now, if you go to the mint's website and look at the production figures for 2002, you'll see the 6 million (actually 7 million+) listed for general circulation, but NOT the 10 million struck for collectors (bag and roll sales.) If the same logic applies to 2003, those 6 million+ Sacs listed in the production figures are for general circulation and do not include bag and roll sales. That's the way I read it based on the above excerpt. If that turns out not to be the case, then something's screwy.

construct

The 2003 production figures show five million halves. These were not produced for circulation. They are being sold in bags and rolls from the mint.

This is the first I've heard of 2002 dollars being released into general circulation.

richbeat

I'm trying to get a handle on what I've read (the quote from the above post) versus what the mint has posted for their production figures. To get to the bottom of this, you'd have to know how many 2002 Sacs were sold in bags and rolls. The article stated 6 million Sacs were struck for general circulation. The mint website production figures lists approximately 7.5 million Sacs. If that difference (1.5 million approximately) represents the bag and roll sales, then the picture becomes a little clearer, and the bag and roll sales are included in the production figures. However, that's a far cry from the 10 million the mint said they would strike for collectors.

So far I've found one 2002D Sac. I'm guessing it came from a bag or roll that somebody bought, and spent because it was lesser grade quality. I think one or two board members stated they have done this?

Conder101

The mint never struck those other 10 million coins and all of the circulation pieces were diverted into collector sales. (I don't believe the 7.5 million figure includes the dollars used in the mint sets either.) None of the 2002's were released for circulation, but back when the rolls first came out I do recall seeing letters and posts in various forums from collectors who mentioned in passing that after the culled the rolls for the best pieces they took the rest to the bank or spent them.

And 3 miilion of each coin is only 120,000 roll sets. Sell a few bags and the number of roll sets drops even further. I don't find the idea of them selling that many roll sets to be too great a stretch of the imagination.

richbeat

Thanks Conder, that clears things up considerably.