Depends... Are we talking about KNOWN mintages? If so, and the requirement is that it was issued by a government, it would likely be the 1891 proof quarter I have, which had 600 minted. As far as unknown mintages, I have what appears to be a very rare Ravensberg kreuzer. No known mintage figures, and no date on the coin, but it was minted in 1622. It was later revalued because of Germany's kipper und wipper financial crisis. I have only seen three examples - and information is scarce. Mine appears to be the nicest of them. One has severe scratches on the 'blank' side, and the other was poorly struck. I suspect it is a very, VERY rare coin but since there isn't much interest in the coins from this city, finding a buyer would be tough. I think I would ask $200, as the others appear to be worth about $150 according to German States coin dealers, and Krause catalogues.
It depends upon how you want to define low mintage. Is it the lowest mintage for a date and mint combination in The Red Book, or the estimated mintage for a die variety? I have an 1836 Gobrecht dollar that has the “onward and upward” orientation for the eagle rotation, which is the position for the 1,000 pieces that were issued in 1836. More pieces were issued in later years. I have a couple of other pieces with reported mintages of less than 2,000. There are many tokens and medals, including those made by the U.S. Mint, that are much lower.
I have Mexican Libertad proofs, with mintages of 800. I also have Eastern European coins, with mintages of 1000. My Liberty Nickel proofs have mintages of under 2000
Country Turkmenistan Denomination 20 Manat Year 2011 Subject 20th Anniversary of Independence Composition Silver Weight (gr) 8.11 Diameter (mm) 22 Mintage 300 Mint Royal Mint (UK) https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ddddd-ex-soviet-nations-set-turkmenistan.398807/
Mintage is how many produced...it isnt existing that two different things I had back in the 2009 /2012 time peroid I had several gold coins with less than 50 minted! The bible series from Israel have very low mintages 22k rose gold coins. <50
Why would a government mint those small amounts of coins for the use of the country? It would seem that low mintages make coins very valuable. The Mint doesn't gain much. One of the coins with low mintage was the 2020 W End of World War II 75th Anniversary American Eagle Silver Proof Coin. I don't remember the mintage. There was another ASE Reverse Proof Coin. Check out their mintage and what they are selling for. I have never captured a low mintage coin. Anyway, thanks for showing your coins. They are beautiful.
I would have to say my 1872-S Seated Dollar at 9,000 (With 8,000 melted an hour later) is probably my lowest mintage coin.
1853 P & O half dimes...no arrows minted one day ...melted the next... 135,000 -1853 P 1853 O 160,000 survive rate extremely low.
@potty dollar 1878 Mintages of world coins vs U.S. mintages 190,000 world coin mintage depending on country is very high! Where any US mintage under 200k is low. Compare mintages and size of country of world coins to US huge difference.
A lot of the unc. modern commem gold coins are way under 10,000 in numbers.......mintage don't mean nuthin' if nobody wants 'em.
i might amend that just a tiny bit... mintage means nothing until somebody wants them. but then again I'm an optimist....