2009 Uncirculated Lincoln Commemorative Wait List

This afternoon the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Uncirculated Silver Dollar went on "waiting list" status. The Proof version of the coin remains available for sale without the waiting list notice.

The message on the Uncirculated coin's product page in part states the following:

The number of orders we have taken meets the maximum limit for the 2009 Abraham Lincoln Commemorative Uncirculated Silver Dollar. You may still place an order for his product, which will go on a waiting list. If a product becomes available due to an order cancellation, we will fulfill orders from the waiting list on a first-in, first-served basis.

As posted over the weekend, combined sales through March 15, 2009 was 423,451, bringing the total very close to the 450,000 individual sales needed to reach a sell out. The maximum mintage for the 2009 Lincoln Commemorative is actually 500,000, but 50,000 have been reserved for a special 5 Coin Proof Set to be released this summer.

The maximum authorized mintage does not specify separate maximums for the proof and uncirculated versions of the coins. The breakdown is generally determined based on demand from customer orders. As a practical matter, the US Mint probably must determine an allocation for the final production runs in advance of the actual sell out.

The proof version of the Lincoln Commemorative has sold more than twice as many coins as the uncirculated version. When the additional 50,000 proof coins to be included in the special set are considered, the final proof mintage might be close to triple the uncirculated coin's mintage. For some past commemorative coin issues, the uncirculated coin which was less popular during the sales period eventually became more expensive on the secondary market due to the lower mintage.