The Red book states that the 1981 SBA dollars were only released in mint sets. So, why the big differance in mintage numbers? 3,000,000 P's 3,250,000 D's 3,492,000 S's What happened to the extra D's & S's? melt down?
Mintage numbers are not always the best guide to go by. The Mint routinely mints many more coins than needed to adjust for returns, bad strikes, damaged coins, and a list of other situations. The Mint has a funny way of doing business, and even they do not understand or follow the rules all of the time. It would not shock me a bit if they have bags of the 81 series sitting in treasury vaults someplace.
I had considered that,but thinking logicly (I think thats my problem) wouldn't all the coins have been released before the coin was resurrected due to a shortage in 1999? And, speaking of the 40 million 1999 SBA's.... Where are these coins? I get dollar coins at the bank and post office all the time and have only gotten 1 1999 SBA. Burried in the vaults?
It's not true that all 1981 SBA's were released in the mint set. There were some released in a 3 Pc souvenir set of the '81 issues, some were mixed in with 1980 coins in bags, and some sold in $1000 bags to coin dealers. There were lots of special sets made in those days and it wouldn't be surprising if some were released in this way. Many of these special sets had tiny mintages and were offered at the US Mint booth at coin shows. All I have seen have been of mint set quality though this was not a good year for quality especially for the San Francisco issues. Usually where you see these discrepancies on modern coins the excesses were destroyed but there are numerous exceptions.
Many of these SBA dollars are sitting in bank vaults. The supporters of the Sac dollar believe that this situation is causing the lack of desire for the golden dollar. Many rolls purchased at the local banks will contain both versions of the small dollar. Most of the supporters have asked that the Mint find these SBA's and remove them. A silly idea based on the cost of removing the coins. Now for the logical thinking concerning the Mint. Well for over 200 years, the Mint works in a lot of ways, but logical is usually not one of them. They seem to write and rewrite the rules as often as it suits them. What is considered a hard and fast rule one day is not the next. This is nothing new, and doesn't seem to change despite who runs the mint. While there are not "friends" of the mint any longer. (anyone remember Glenacre?)
