Susan B. Anthony Dollar Question ?!?
19Lyds
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I just happened to notice that the production numbers for the 1981 Susan B. Anthony Dollars are unequal.
P = 3,000,000
D = 3,250,000
S = 3,492,000
If these were only produced for Mint Sets, what happened to the extra 742,000 coins?
P = 3,000,000
D = 3,250,000
S = 3,492,000
If these were only produced for Mint Sets, what happened to the extra 742,000 coins?
I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.
The name is LEE!
The name is LEE!
0
Comments
First, I doubt that the numbers you cite are even close to being correct. If memory serves
they were originally reported as all being within about 80,000 of 3,050,000. The number of
the lowest mintage was the same (or nearly so) of the mint set mintage. In those days (pre-
1998) mint set production and regular production were rolled into a single number as the mint-
age. This included the souvenir sets as well. While the '81 dollars were not included in the
regular souvenir set they did appear in a special 3-pc dollar souvenir set. This set is very hard
to find and likely had a mintage of only about 5,000.
Mint set mintages were actually sales rather than mintage. All '81 dollars were probably made
to mint set standards but there were overages which were mixed into bags of 1980 dollars.
There was some attempt to spread these out so that bags didn't contain large numbers of
'81 issues. Judging by the large numbers of '81 dollars found in change it must have been
fairly effective.
Then comes the big fly in the ointment; The mint made more mint sets than the demand and
they had many returns because of the abysmal quality of the sets this year. These sets were
hand destroyed and all the coins placed in with 1982 coinage except for the dollars which were
offered to the "public" on a sort of dutch auction basis. These sold to only a handful of entities
at very low prices. I think the best price achieved was only $1500 and most sold for closer to
$1200. These coins sold around 1983 depressed the price of the secondary market for the '81
sets. The '81 set is really a tough set to cherry pick. There are extremely few gems or near gems
so you can look a long time for something interesting. This set does contain the only type "d"
reverse quarter that appears in mint sets but it's poorly known. About 1 set in 160 has this P
mint quarter.
The P mint dollar does command a small premium over the others quite often but that may parti-
ally be the result of better quality. The Denver is the highest quality and the San Francisco is,
by far, the worst.
Edited to correct: mitanges to mintages
The name is LEE!
<< <i>I just happened to notice that the production numbers for the 1981 Susan B. Anthony Dollars are unequal.
P = 3,000,000
D = 3,250,000
S = 3,492,000
If these were only produced for Mint Sets, what happened to the extra 742,000 coins? >>
they were melted for the copper....
<< <i>I pulled the mitanges off of Coinfact.com which I shall assume used the Redbook as a source since the 2006 Redbook has the same figures. >>
Krause uses the same numbers. I may well be wrong.
I'll see if I can dig out the 1982 report of the director of the mint.
it may just be as simple as the plain fact that the numbers aren't accurate.
The 1973 Eisenhowers suffered the same fate.
2,000,000 minted with an unknown number of coins destroyed because the sets were not sold.
The name is LEE!
envelope. So, that's where at least some of them went.
bob
2,000,000 minted with an unknown number of coins destroyed because the sets were not sold.>>
The Red Book says "1,769,258 of each sold only in sets and not released for circulation. Unissued coins destroyed at the mint."
It was some time before the destruction showed up in the Statement of US Currency but it eventually did.