US Mint Coin Production September 2009

The US Mint has updated their coin production figures to reflect coins produced through the end of September. The update also includes the final mintage figures for the 2009 U.S. Virgin Islands Quarter.

The table below presents the coins produced by the US Mint for the month of September and for the entire year to date.

2009 US Mint Coin Production Figures
	Sept 2009	Jan 2009 - Sept 2009
Lincoln Cent - Denver	74.00 M	1,050.00 M
Lincoln Cent - Phil.	19.20 M	976.40 M
Jefferson Nickel - Denver	0	46.80 M
Jefferson Nickel - Phil.	0	39.84 M
Roosevelt Dime - Denver	0	49.50 M
Roosevelt Dime - Phil.	0	96.50 M
Quarters - Denver	24.00 M	237.40 M
Quarters - Phil.	3.80 M	232.12 M
Kennedy Half - Denver	0.20 M	1.90 M
Kennedy Half - Phil.	0	1.70 M
Native Am Dollar - Denver	10.08 M	33.88 M
Native Am Dollar - Phil.	10.08 M	37.38 M
Pres Dollar - Denver	12.46 M	152.88 M
Pres Dollar - Phil.	28.14 M	161.84 M
Total	181.96 M	3,118.14 M

The additional following table shows US Mint Coin Production by design. Several denominations feature rotating obverse or reverse designs. When the US Mint posts production figures for individual designs, these have been the final mintages.

2009 US Mint Coin Production by Design
	Denver	Phil.	Total
Birthplace Cent	350.00 M	284.80 M	634.80 M
Formative Years Cent	363.60 M	376.00 M	739.60 M
Harrison Pres Dollar	55.16 M	43.26 M	98.42 M
Tyler Pres Dollar	43.54 M	43.54 M	87.08 M
Polk Pres Dollar	41.72 M	46.62 M	88.34 M
DC Quarter	88.80 M	83.60 M	172.40 M
Puerto Rico Quarter	86.00 M	53.20 M	139.20 M
Guam Quarter	42.60 M	45.00 M	87.60 M
Am Samoa Quarter	39.60 M	42.60 M	82.20 M
US Virgin Islands Quarter	41.00 M	41.00 M	82.00 M

Overall, the US Mint facilities in Philadelphia and Denver produced 181.96 million coins during the month of September. This is down significantly from the prior month when more than 350 million coins had been produced. Production took place for Lincoln Cents, Quarters, Kennedy Half Dollars, Presidential Dollars, and Native American Dollars.

Production of additional Kennedy Half Dollars was surprising. Last week, I wrote a post that explored the fact that the US Mint's supply of half dollars was getting close to exhaustion. The Kennedy Half Dollar is not produced for circulation, but the coins are sold directly to collectors in premium priced bags and rolls. It appears that the US Mint will produce additional coins to keep the sale of bags and rolls going. Last year, the 2008 Kennedy Half Dollar had a combined mintage of 3.4 million coins, split evenly between Philadelphia and Denver coins. The new production will push 2009 Kennedy Half Dollars above this level.

The final combined mintage of 82 million for the US Virgin Islands Quarters marks another new low for overall quarter mintage this year. When I covered last month's coin production update, I noted that declines in mintages seemed to be flattening out and may have been setting up to rise. Perhaps the Northern Mariana Quarter mintage will finally break the trend. Notably, the lowest 2009 quarter mintage for an individual coin remains as the 2009-D American Samoa Quarter with a mintage of 39.6 million.