I guess our change truly does not circulate widely. While in CA, I received almost exclusively D Mi

Longacre

Last week I was on a vacation of utmost luxury and pampering. I spent approximately 10 days with Mrs. Longacre's side of the family at Ft. Irwin, CA. If anyone is planning on visiting, I highly recommend the Ft. Irwin Spa, as well as playing a round on the beautifully manicured 36 golf holes of the Ft. Irwin Country Club. For your gastronomic pleasure, there are several 5 Michelin Star restaurants located right on the base.

Anyway, as I was sipping a mint julip in a cabana by the Ft. Irwin pool, I looked through my pocket change. I noticed that I received, almost exclusively, D Mint coins. I always assumed that our change circulated more widely. At home in the cold, icy, barren, and dark East Coast, I almost never see D mint coins, so I guess I should not be surprised. Does anyone have any comments?


PS. The one cool thing about Ft. Irwin are the mock-ups of Iraqi villages that they have there, located out in the desert. I took a tour of a few of them, and when you combine the desert landscape, with Hollywood-quality villages, you feel as though you are walking the streets of Baghdad. It was pretty cool, and I'm glad to see that our government takes training the troops so seriously.

BigE2

Yes, since I moved from Western Mass to Central Arkansas a year and a half ago, I've noticed the same thing. VERY rarely do I find anything but "D" mint coins.

GeorgieB

Wow didn't realize that.

McDonis

In the midwest you can get crossover but still I would say about 95% or higher of Ohio coins are P mint.

CaptHenway

It has always been thus. Why should they pay to ship P-mint coins to the west coast just to circulate?

Coinosaurus

I have heard, that the spas that RYK visits don't use pocket change. Apparently every transaction is conducted in denominations of $20 or higher.

So, that makes me wonder, if LA's stories about how nice this is place is are really true.

clarkbar04

I'd bet most people that travel very far aren't going to bring much change, so whatever you do see is from whatever a person gets in an airport buying lunch or magazines.

McDonis

<< <i>It has always been thus. Why should they pay to ship P-mint coins to the west coast just to circulate? >>





I think what Longacre meant was that its interesting that the D and P mint coins dont naturally circulate and move from coast to coast just by normal practice. Not that they ship on mass coins from one side of the nation to the other.

Longacre

<< <i>

<< <i>It has always been thus. Why should they pay to ship P-mint coins to the west coast just to circulate? >>





I think what Longacre meant was that its interesting that the D and P mint coins dont naturally circulate and move from coast to coast just by normal practice. Not that they ship on mass coins from one side of the nation to the other. >>




Yes, that's what I meant.

ajia

Who uses change anymore when you have plastic?

cladking

The way coins are used continues to evolve. Where they were once a medium
of exchange now they are much more a means to make change. When you could
get a donut and a cup of coffee for a quarter it was common to pull out a quarter
to pay. Now this will run a dollar fifty and you'll use a couple singles to pay and
toss the quarters in a jar when you get home.

Of course one cent coins barely circulate at all and velocity has been slowing great-
ly on the nickel and dime in recent years. This can be seen in the much higher mint-
ages which started around 1998. These coins are needed to fill up the millions of
jars people use and the lower rarte if edemption on these jars since the value is
always decreasing to inflation. Why hurry to the bank to cash in $100 worth of
coins if it's not even enough to take the family out to dinner?

But quarters still circulate reasonably well and mostly randomly. I'm sure you'll no-
tice that the old worn quarters from the '60's and '70's are represented according
to mint mostly on the basis of mintage everywhere in the continental US. These
useds to average about six miles in a random walk and they'd be used about three
times per month. The velocity is down now. By the time most made it across the
country they'd be worn to about XF.

I think what you are seeing with the quarters is the effects of collectors. Many peo-
ple on the coasts are seeking complete sets so when the first states coins make it
over they are being snatched up leaving only the local mint marks. A little of this is
probably happening with most coins now though you might have a long wait to see
the cent from the other coast.

collegecoincollector

I cherish every D or S mint coin I find here in Virginia, especially if it is only a year or two old

ziggy29

Indeed. Both when I lived in California and here in Texas, the overwhelming majority of change I get is Denver Mint coinage. I don't usually see Philly Mint coins until they are several years old.

dbldie55

It is simple statistics. They do circulate. When I was able to search quantities of change, I found P mints without problem. When I only search change, the amount of change I can search is such a small sample one would not expect to find P mint coins.

(We get D mint coins in the area I live)

ziggy29

I'd be interested to hear what geographic areas get a pretty even mix of Philly and Denver coinage. I'd roughly guess that the Mississippi might be close to the dividing line, so maybe cities and states around the Mighty Miss might get a mix?