Coin production at the U.S. Mint got off to a weak start to the year in January when little more than half a billion coins were struck.
If production continues at the same rate for the next 11 months, overall production would drop to fewer than 6.2 billion coins from over 10.1 billion in 2008.
Some surprisingly low numbers were recorded for nickels at the Philadelphia Mint where only 3,360,000 were struck.
The new Native American dollar saw only 700,000 coined in Denver.
Quarter production at the pace set in January would not even hit 900 million by year end, compared to over 2.5 billion struck in 2008.
Naturally, one month does not tell the story for an entire year, but for collectors used to counting by the billions, January’s numbers seem surprisingly low.
