Let a few silver ones escape?

How low can quarter mintages go?

Only 25 million Denver and 25.8 million 2012 El Yunque National Forest quarters were made.

This ratchets down yet again the production levels for each design of the America the Beautiful quarter series.

When the series started in 2010, production of the five deigns ran from 33 million to 36 million apiece at the two mints.

In 2011, production backed off to a range of 30 million to 33 million, on average, down about 3 million coins.

Now we have bumped lower by roughly 5 million coins from each mint.

As the song asks, “How low can you go?”

This output level can be accommodated in just a single month at each mint, so with five designs issued each year, it is possible that quarter production will be zero in 7 out of 12 months.

That would leave room for another seven designs each year for a total of 12.

No?

I agree. That is one bright idea too far, though perhaps knocking one or two designs to mintages of 4 million or 5 million might persuade the nation’s collectors to get into the series with more enthusiasm.

It worked for the 25th anniversary American Eagle set, but then the low mintage was due to output limitations.

That cannot be claimed in relation to America the Beautiful quarters.

Perhaps a few silver versions should "accidentally" escape into circulation.