Fewer coins were minted for circulation in October, the latest coin production figures from the United States Mint reveal. In keeping with past months, Lincoln cents kept Mint presses busiest. Pennies hurdled over the 4 billion milestone this year.
Also of note, while the Mint is yet to call finalized mintages for Garfield Presidential $1 coins, it would appear they are at — or are very close to — a stopping point. More interesting, unless the United States Mint is producing extra quarters with older designs, the upcoming release of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area Quarter will easily sport the highest mintages of any America the Beautiful Quarter.
Published by the United States Mint on Wednesday, October coin production figures totaled 690.66 million coins. The amount is down 14.9 percent from the previous month and 5.4 percent lower than October 2010. The total was the sixth highest of the year and seventh best over the past 12 months, as highlighted in the following table:
Monthly US Mint Coin Production Figures / Mintages
| Month | Mintages | Rank |
| October 2011 | 690.66 M | 7 |
| September 2011 | 811.42 M | 3 |
| August 2011 | 604.54 M | 9 |
| July 2011 | 821.98 M | 2 |
| June 2011 | 903.06 M | 1 |
| May 2011 | 807.41 M | 4 |
| April 2011 | 640.17 M | 8 |
| March 2011 | 485.5 M | 12 |
| February 2011 | 523.14 M | 11 |
| January 2011 | 764.73 M | 5 |
| December 2010 | 80.200 M | 13 |
| November 2010 | 531.46 M | 10 |
| October 2010 | 730.22 M | 6 |
United States Mint presses remained silent for Kennedy half dollars. That has been the case since January, because the business strikes are not sent into circulation — they are produced for coin collectors. All other coins were minted.
As mentioned, pennies continue their domination. Not only did they top the aforementioned 4 billion mark for the year, they accounted for 55.2 percent of the Mints’ entire monthly output. With the increase of 381.2 million last month, their year-to-date total is actually nearing 4.2 billion, or 172.9 million more than all of last year.
Coins that are struck for circulation are produced in either the United States Mint facility in Denver or the one in Philadelphia. For a second straight month, the Denver Mint was busier with an output of 409.48 million coins versus the 281.18 million from Philadelphia.
US Mint Circulating Coin Production October 2011
| Denver | Philadelphia | Total | |
| Lincoln Cents | 252,800,000 | 128,400,000 | 381,200,000 |
| Jefferson Nickels | 50,880,000 | 9,600,000 | 60,480,000 |
| Roosevelt Dimes | 48,000,000 | 63,000,000 | 111,000,000 |
| 2011 Quarters | 42,400,000 | 58,200,000 | 100,600,000 |
| Kennedy Half Dollars | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Native American $1s | 0 | 10,640,000 | 10,640,000 |
| Presidential Dollars | 15,400,000 | 11,340,000 | 26,740,000 |
| Total | 409,480,000 | 281,180,000 | 690,660,000 |
On a year-to-date basis, the United States Mint has produced a total of 7.05261 billion circulating coins. Split between Mint facility, 3.65146 billion are from Denver and 3.40115 billion are from Philadelphia. For the first time, each of the levels are now higher (by several hundred million) than corresponding coin production figures from 2010. And the combined mintages are nearly 2X higher than the 3.548 billion coins produced in 2009.
Chickasaw Quarters and Garfield $1 Mintages Not Finalized
Chickasaw quarters will enter circulation Monday, November 14. None of the coins were minted in September, but quarter production sprinted in October. 100.6 million were produced, with 42.4 million in Denver and 58.2 million in Philadelphia. If those amounts are assigned to the Chickasaw quarter, it would be the most minted quarter since the middle tier 2009 quarters which honored the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories. The Mint has already stated the mintages for the previous four 2011-dated quarters — and their levels have not changed, but there is a chance some of the quarters minted in October were for one or more of these older designs. The United States Mint has a bulk purchase program in place that permits businesses to buy past quarter designs for a year even when it has stopped delivering them to Federal Reserve Banks. November figures will clarify whether more of the old designs were minted, and those will not be released until early December.
It appears collectors will until have to wait until December to learn mintages for the final 2011-dated Presidential $1 coin. James A. Garfield Presidential $1 coins are scheduled to launch into circulation on November 17. The Mint has been striking them since September. $1 coins that have not been assigned to a previous design currently total 72.1 million, with 37.1 million from Denver and 35 million from Philadelphia. These amounts are well within the previous $1 coin mintages, indicating that the United States Mint is either finished or nearly finished with striking dollars for the year.
For reference, the following table summarizes the latest United States mintage figures by coin design and denomination.
YTD 2011 Coin Production by Design
| Denver | Philadelphia | 2011 Total | |
| Lincoln Cents | 2,176,940,000 | 2,006,800,000 | 4,183,740,000 |
| Jefferson Nickels | 473,760,000 | 379,440,000 | 853,200,000 |
| Roosevelt Dimes | 659,000,000 | 664,000,000 | 1,323,000,000 |
| Gettysburg Park Quarters | 30,800,000 | 30,400,000 | 61,200,000 |
| Glacier Park Quarters | 31,200,000 | 30,400,000 | 61,600,000 |
| Olympic Park Quarters | 30,600,000 | 30,400,000 | 61,000,000 |
| Vicksburg Quarters | 33,400,000 | 30,800,000 | 64,200,000 |
| Kennedy Half Dollars | 1,700,000 | 1,750,000 | 3,450,000 |
| Native American $1 | 23,100,000 | 22,260,000 | 45,360,000 |
| Johnson Presidential $1 | 37,100,000 | 35,560,000 | 72,660,000 |
| Grant Presidential $1 | 37,940,000 | 38,080,000 | 76,020,000 |
| Rutherford B. Hayes $1 | 36,820,000 | 37,660,000 | 74,480,000 |
Coin production figures above are based on data from the United States Mint page: http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/?action=coin_production.
Why would all these Dollar coins be minted. There can not be that much demand? Maybe the one dollar bill is to be ended soon
We need to print (in this case, coin) more money to reduce the national debt…!
Don’t you listen to our highly educated leaders in Washington??
@cliff : a previous article stated the mint had to, by law, produce a minimum of 75 million $1 coins per Presidential design. I thought by now their numbers would be in the low millions and that’s the reason they aren’t.