Commemorative Mintage Totals

mhnies

Can anyone tell me where I can find out exackty how many coins
the US mint made for each modern commemorative?

Thanks

Cameonut

Here's one site I use. I have another but will have to dig for it.

Mintages

mhnies

Thanks..... but what does it mean when the number is .2 ?

Cameonut

Those guys at Stanford sometime format in scientific notation. So .2 e6 means that you move the decimal point 6 places to the right. So .2 e6 becomes 200,000. And .2 e8 becomes 20,000,000.

Does that help?

mhnies

Well that explains it and I can work with that but WOW.

Thanks alot for your help. I have spent the last hour searching
for these numbers to no avail.

Do have an interest in modern comms?

To me, it seems that many of these are underpriced for the mintages.

There was only 53,761 of the 2003 first flight ms dollars made.
Seems like they should be worth a lot more than the current price.

Michael

kamehameha00

Anthony Swiateks Commemorative Coins of the United States lists the net mintage of all modern commemoratives and the net mintage and how many melted for the classic commemoratives.

earlwbollinger

To me, it seems that many of these are underpriced for the mintages.
There was only 53,761 of the 2003 first flight ms dollars made.
Seems like they should be worth a lot more than the current price.

Well like other things the price is driven by demand. If very few people are interested and want to buy something.
Then that item doesn't sell for much.
Modern Commemeratives are very odd that way. I remember many years ago, that you if would buy a Proof commemerative from the mint,
it would drop about 40 to 50% in value if you were to sell it later. it was just that there weren't that many people interested and there were few buyers
wanting them.
Of course some coins did go up in value somewhat, the Dolly Madison is a good example. Not many people were interested or bought them when they
were selling from the mint. But now more people are, so they pay more for the few that were made and sold by the mint. But the demand has been lukewarm not huge.

Cameonut

I used to be interested in the modern commems. Turns out I bought many directly from the mint, but became disinterested when values dropped and they took up too much space in the vault. So I sold most of them and really have not watched them much.

You are right, there are a few with very low mintages. But as pointed out earlier in this thread, there is not a high demand.

LanLord

<< <i>To me, it seems that many of these are underpriced for the mintages. There was only 53,761 of the 2003 first flight ms dollars made. Seems like they should be worth a lot more than the current price. Michael >>

I am not completely convinced that 53 thousand qualifies as a low mintage when commems are considered.

If we look at both the moderns and the classics, the real difficult ones (from a price standpoint, not particularly difficult to actually find examples of) are the ones that are in the 10 to 15 thousand range in mintage.

Look at the Olympic dollars from the Atlanta Olympics. In 1996, they were in 14 to 16 thousand range and these are the ones that are sitting around $275 - 300. The 1995 dollars are 19 - 42 thousand in mintages are most are in the $80 - 100 range.

You see similar things in the classics, the ones like Hawaii, Spanish Trail, Hudson are the pricey ones, and they are in the roughly 10 thousand mintage range. Once you get to 50 thousand, I think you may have exceeded the strong base of commem collectors unless something unusual happens (like the Buffalo dollar) where a large population wants one or more examples.

Now, this collectors base could always increase, indeed things like the state quarters and the L&C nickels may be bringing enough new blood into the hobby that some of those new people will move into Commems, with each new person looking for commems, the existing base gets that much more depleted, and there won't be any new ones made to quench that thirst.

Just my opinion.

BillJones

One has to remember is that the survival rates for all commemorative coins, old and new, are MUCH higher than they are for regular issue coins. Therefore 50 thousand coins is no big deal in the commemorative series because almost all of them still exist, and the vast majority of them are in high grades, like PR or MS 68 or better. You can’t compare mintages of business strikes coins and commemoratives because a lot of business strike coins have gone to heaven.

For example 264,000 1916-D Mercury dimes were issued. Today probably no more than 10,000 of those still exist, and among those a lot of them are in less than desirable grades like, AG-3. In contrast 10,000 Hawaiian half dollars were issued. Among those probably 97%+ of the mintage still exists, and among the survivors one would be hard pressed to find a coin in less than EF or AU condition.

Demand also plays a big role. Recently I found a 1939-D Arkansas half dollar for a customer in NGC MS-64. It’s really nice coin for the grade, and the mintage is only 2,104 pieces. Yet about the only collectors who care are the hard core commemorative guys. As a result I can sell this coin to my customer for less than $400.

FatMan

<< <i>Demand also plays a big role. Recently I found a 1939-D Arkansas half dollar for a customer in NGC MS-64. It’s really nice coin for the grade, and the mintage is only <B>2,104 pieces</B>. Yet about the only collectors who care are the hard core commemorative guys. As a result I can sell this coin to my customer for less than $400. >>

Most commem collectors are type collectors. Few collect the entire 144 pc series and settle for the 50 pc type set. In Bill's example above when he refers to the hard core guys he is talking the 144 pc collectors. Therefore when assesing low mintages look at the total mintage for the commem, not by date and mm. The Arkansas Commem has a total mintage of approx 85000 which makes it quite easy to obtain for type collectors. That is what is keeping the prices down on the 39's and 38's.

When looking at silver commems consider any total type mintage of 20,000 or less as a tough coin. That holds true for Moderns as well. Take for example the UNC Atlanta Commems. The prices on these have gone through the roof in the past 5 years.

Here is another site for modern commem mintages that looks a little easier to read. Modern Commem Mintages