This article was originally printed in the latest issue of Numismatic News.
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September coin production at the two U.S. Mint’s circulating production facilities fell again in September from the month before, but cent production did pass the 3 billion mark.
Overall monthly coin production was 690.02 million coins, down 53.76 million from August.
This is the third monthly decline in a row since the Mint achieved a post recession high in June of 918.94 million pieces.
Quarters remain the biggest laggards. The overhanging supply from the state and District of Columbia and U.S. Territories continues to depress demand for this year’s output.
In Denver just 5.8 million quarters were struck in September while Philadelphia had an even lower total of 5 million pieces.
For the year just 278.20 million quarters have come off the Mint’s coining presses. That number is approximately one-third the level of dime production, which sits at 885.5 million and is even below nickel production, which stands at 330.24.
Cent output was 427.6 million pieces, bringing the total of 2010 dated Union Shield pieces to 3,185,230,000 pieces. If that rate of production continues, the Mint will have produced more cents in the 10 months of 2010 to October than the total of all coins produced in the 12 months of 2009.
With cent demand being highly sensitive to economic activity, that is a positive sign for the economies growth going forward.
Just over 5 billion coins have been produced so far in 2010, a production level of roughly 20 percent of the economic boom year of 2000.
No Native American dollar coins or Kennedy half dollar coins were struck in September.
Presidential dollars registered 36.4 million coins in the Mint’s output tally.
As is Mint practice, output is fairly evenly divided for the year to date between Denver and Philadelphia.
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