The pace of cent production picked up in May as compared to the April rate according to the latest numbers released by the U.S. Mint even as output of nickels and dimes fell to zero in the month.
Some 50 million more cents were struck in May as compared to April. The increase came at the Denver Mint where 126.8 million coins were struck in May as compared to 72.4 million in April. At Philadelphia, cent production actually nudged down by 2.8 million pieces.
Overall, these numbers for the second of four designs in 2009 leave it behind the first design with the log cabin on the reverse.
There were 634.8 million cents struck of the first design and so far there have been 510.8 million struck of the second, but presumably there is at least one more month of output for the second design.
For comparison, the Birth design shows Philadelphia as the lower mintage at 284.4 and Denver came in at 350.4 million.
For the Formative Years design, so far the Denver Mint is scarcer at 199.2 million as compared to 311.6 million Philadelphia pieces.
As previously announced, production of nickels and dimes has ceased until demand picks up from the Federal Reserve System. Its orders depend on coin demand from the banking system overall. Half dollar output was also stilled.
The presses also went quiet for Presidential dollars. Only Native American golden dollars were coined. Some 20.02 million were struck in Philadelphia and 11.9 million in Denver, bringing the annual output to 51.1 million. Twenty percent of all dollars struck in 2009 must have this design.
Quarter output was slower also, making the Denver Guam coin the key so far this year. See separate story for details.
Overall, the May monthly output was almost identical to April’s. The current monthly pace if maintained through the end of the year would bring the annual output to approximately 4.4 billion coins.
