1913 Buffalo Nickel Mintage Mysteries (it seems 19 coins are missing)
dbldie55
Posts: 7,741 ✭✭✭✭✭
Years ago, while going through the 1965 Edition of the book "Domestic and Foreign Coins Manufactured by the Mints of the United States" I noticed a 19 coin discrepancy for the mintage of 1913 Buffalo nickels. This book lists a mintage of 60,852,239 while all of the references seem to have:
30,993,520 Type 1
29,858,700 Type 2
60,852,220 Total
This shows a difference of 19 coins. While going through one of Roger W. Burdette's latest addition to the NNP, daily counts from 1911-1915, the numbers correspond to the mint reports (60,852,239). The number of Type 1 match, so the 19 coin discrepancy is with the Type 2 coins (should be 29,858,719).
However, I also found some more number changes in the Red Book related to Proof 1913 Nickels.
Mintages first appeared in the 16th edition (1963), the numbers were unchanged through 1966 and showed: *2,594
The asterisk indicated this was the total for both Type 1 and Type 2.
From 1967 - 1974, the number changed to *3,034 (also for a total for both Type 1 and Type 2)
Starting in 1975, they listed the numbers for each
1,520 Type 1
1,514 Type 2
Which totals the 3,034 that was listed from 1967-1974.
What is interesting is going through these daily totals in the Mint daily records as they do indicate the number of proofs.
They also have a specific entry for the total Type 1 numbers, showing the last day of delivery was May 9th.
These numbers are 20,992,000 regular coinage and 1,520 proofs.
The daily break down is:
Mar 5: 1,000
Mar 20: 300
May 4: 220
Total: 1,520
For Type 2, the daily break down is:
May 27: 250
Oct 14: 110
Nov 20: 285
Dec 2: 233
Dec 24: 196
Total:1,074
If you add these (1,520 and 1,074) you get 2,594, which is the number in the 1963-1966 editions.
I wonder where the other 440 came from?
Comments
Is it 19 or 440? As you see, I have trouble with math so I cannot help you; however, your post is a very nice bit of work!!