US Mint product (item) codes. (Updated Sep 2019)
Another answer to a question that no one has asked (in a while.) This post has been updated Sept 2019 to address new products. The original post can be found futher down in this thread, here.
Back in the bad ol' days at the Mint (prior to 2016 ), Mint Product Codes were generally three characters long. The first character was a letter, followed by a number or a letter, followed by a number. They tried to follow some sort of logical progression for multi-year products (such as the quarter programs and annual sets), but it mostly fell into a random, meaningless relationship between product and product number.
In 2016 the Mint decided to actually rationalize their Product Codes.
Mint Product Numbers now are generally four or five characters, and take the form of:
yyTU[V]
where:
yy is the year.
T is the type. Types:
A: ATB quarters.
C: Commemoratives.
American Liberty Coin/Medals.
E: Precious Medals (includes all Eagle products and the Buffalo.)
F: Presidential $1 Coin Covers. (Short lived, ended in 2016.)
G: American Innovation Dollars.
K: Kennedy Halves.
N: Native American Dollars.
P: President Dollars. (Ended in 2016.)
R: Regular (Maybe Repeating, since it's used for annual Mint products.)
S: First Spouse. (Ended in 2016.)
X: Special Mint Product (See below.)
Other "types":
Bnnnnn: BEP (Moneyfactory) products. No year component, "B" is followed by a unique 5 digit number.
S8nn: Silver Presidential Medals. They have no year component, since they're part of the Mint's permanent catalog. "nn" is a number, starting with "01" for Washington, "02" for Adams, etc.
U is a letter that uniquely identifies the product. These are generally consistant from year to year for annual products. (Examples below.)
An exception exists for the ATB quarters and American Innovation dollars, where U indicates a bag ("B") or roll ("R") product. One also exists for Special Mint Products, where a "G" indicates a kid product.
V is only used if "U" is a bag, roll or kid product, and is a letter that uniquely identifies the product. (Examples below.)
Note: The Mint avoids letter/number combinations in situations which could be confusing. Thus, they don't use the letters "I" or "O" for types or unique identifiers, since it will be confused with the numbers "1" or "0".
Special Mint Products (Type "X"):
Special Mint Products generally don't involve congressional mandates, and are single year US Mint products. (American Liberty was the exception, but has now been given it's own type.)
Examples are the 2016 Centennial gold coins (16XA, 16XB and 16XC), the 2017 Enhanced Uncirculated set (17XC) and the 2018 Reverse Proof silver set (18XC).
If a "G" follows the "X", it is a product directed towards the kid program, such as the 2019 Rocketship (19XGC) and the 2019 Explore And Disccover set (19XGB).
Some America the Beautiful examples:
America the Beautiful quarters, Normal products. (17=2017, A=ATB series, then a product identifier.)
17AA: 2017 ATB QTR UNC SET
17AD: 2017 ATB QTR 3-COIN SET - EFF MNDS
17AE: 2017 ATB QTR 3-COIN SET - DOUGLASS
17AJ: 2017 ATB SILVER UNC 5 OZ - EFF MNDS
17AK: 2017 ATB SILVER UNC 5 OZ - DOUGLASS
America the Beautiful quarters, Roll and bag products. (17=2017, A=ATB series, "B" is for bag and "R" is for roll, then a product identifier.)
17ABA: 2017 ATB QTR 100-COIN BAG - EFF MNDS (P)
17ABB: 2017 ATB QTR 100-COIN BAG - EFF MNDS (D)
17ABC: 2017 ATB QTR 100-COIN BAG - EFF MNDS (S)
17ABD: 2017 ATB QTR 100-COIN BAG - DOUGLASS (P)
17ABE: 2017 ATB QTR 100-COIN BAG - DOUGLASS (D)
17ABF: 2017 ATB QTR 100-COIN BAG - DOUGLASS (S)
17ARA: 2017 ATB QTR 2-ROLL SET - EFF MNDS (P & D)
17ARB: 2017 ATB QTR 40-COIN ROLL - EFF MNDS (S)
17ARC: 2017 ATB QTR 3-ROLL SET - EFF MNDS (P & D & S)
17ARD: 2017 ATB QTR 2-ROLL SET - DOUGLASS (P & D)
17ARE: 2017 ATB QTR 40-COIN ROLL - DOUGLASS (S)
17ARF: 2017 ATB QTR 3-ROLL SET - DOUGLASS (P & D & S)
For yearly products, the two suffix characters have been consistant since the change. ("yy" is the year.)
Precious Medals
yyEA: AM EAGLE SILVER PROOF 1 OZ (W)
yyEB: AM EAGLE GOLD PROOF 1 OZ
yyEC: AM EAGLE GOLD PROOF 1/2 OZ
yyED: AM EAGLE GOLD PROOF 1/4 OZ
yyEE: AM EAGLE GOLD PROOF 1/10 OZ
yyEF: AM EAGLE GOLD PROOF 4-COIN SET
yyEG: AM EAGLE SILVER UNC 1 OZ (W)
yyEH: AM EAGLE GOLD UNC 1 OZ
yyEJ: AM EAGLE PLATINUM PROOF 1 OZ
yyEK: AM EAGLE PALLADIUM 1OZ
yyEL: AM BUFFALO GOLD PROOF 1 OZ
yyEM: AM EAGLE SILVER PROOF (S)
Regular (Annual sets)
yyRC: LIMITED EDITION SILVER PROOF SET
yyRD: BIRTH SET
yyRE: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SET
yyRF: CONGRATULATIONS SET
yyRG: PROOF SET
yyRH: SILVER PROOF SET
yyRJ: UNC SET
Kennedy Halves
yyKA: HALF-DOLLAR 200-COIN BAG (P & D)
yyKB: HALF-DOLLAR 2-ROLL SET (P & D)
Native American Dollars
yyNA: NA $1 25-COIN ROLL (P)
yyNB: NA $1 25-COIN ROLL (D)
yyNC: NA $1 250-COIN BOX (P)
yyND: NA $1 250-COIN BOX (D)
yyNE: NA $1 100-COIN BAG (P)
yyNF: NA $1 100-COIN BAG (D)
Final note, I'm using my own termniology. For instance, what I'm calling "type" could also be called a Product Catagory or Program Name. What I'm calling a "product code", was initially identifed by the Mint as "Program Item" and later just changed to "Item" in the Cumulative Sales Figure reports. None of this information comes from the Mint, I'm only looking at the patterns of the new product codes since inception, so these may be more "guidelines" than actual "rules"...
Comments
Wow... OK then... I actually never wondered about this, but thanks for your work.... I will copy and paste it for reference. Cheers, RickO
Interesting. Thanks for the code deciphering. It was an Enigma, now just an igma.
Thanks for your work and dedication to US Mint products!
POST NUBILA PHOEBUS / AFTER CLOUDS, SUN
Love for Music / Collector of Dreck
Bump because I've updated the tables. Below is the original post, the update post is in post 1 of this thread...