It may not be over for the production of 09 nickels and dimes. The mint is discussing plans to create a Stratecic Coin Reserve to be filled with coins struck beyond the amount produced to meet current Federal Reserve orders. The plan is to have a reserve in case production is disrupted at either or both mints. If this happens, guess the Dimes and nickels will get into circulation, just slower then normal. You can read the whole story in this weeks Coin World. Bill :smile
At the slow rate the Fed is ordering coin from the Mint, they probably already HAVE a strategic coin reserve
It is funny how the mint thinks, there is enough coins in circulation that the feds quit ordering any more. So why stock pile them? If both Mints were unable to produce for a year, there would still be enough in circulation and at the banks etc. to last. Or mabey they have a plan, hord the new issues untill the price goes up (like the 09 cents) then start selling them on ebay and make a profit. Mabey the mint learned something from the sales of the lincolns. the upside to this is that if we ordered the coins from ebay we might get them shipped faster then they do now. Bill
I still have yet to see a 09 dime or nickel... I've been looking, and I think it is time to look a little harder... I'll go through some boxes, and let y'all know..
They did that with the 2001 Kennedys. They never released any pf the P Mint coins and then sold the on their website.
So that when the Fed DOES ask for them, they can ship them right out and not have to tell the Fed "Ok, it will take us a couple weeks to get our crews together, get everything up and running a and get the coins you asked for produced." Actually you would probably start to see coin shortages in just a few weeks. Yes the coins ARE still out there, but they will be in hoards not circulating. Why does the mint produce the billions of coins that they do every year? It's not because the economy NEEDS billions more coins in circulation each year. It's because billions of coins LEAVE circulation each year ad have to be replaced to prevent a shortage. The sudden influx of coins from pivate hoards that we are seeing right now and which are reducing the need for new coins is an aberration brought on by a severe economic downturn. As the economy level off and starts to improve those coins will disappear again and once again new coin production will rise. This is because change is so low in purchasing power today that it isn't usually worth fooling with. So rather than carry them people jut toss them into jars, buckets etc. If the mint makes ten billion coins per year, that comes to just 33 coins per person PER YEAR! This means your average household family of four only has to lose, throw away, or put aside three coins PER WEEK for a year, to wipe out the Mints entire ten billion coin annual production, plus an EXTRA billion coins. Now I don't know about you, but I think the average family of four chucks aside or disposes of well more than three coins per week. If it wasn't for hoards constantly being returned to circulation we would quickly have a coin shortage. But when a shortage does develop the standard reaction for most people is to INCREASE their hoarding behaviour. So even more coins would go into hoards, and fewer hoards would be returned to circulation. You cut off production from the mint for long and the economy improves, you will be looking at coin shortages fairly quickly. That was because the mint produced them with the stockpile rational in mind. (The Fed had been ordering around 20 million halves a year, so the mint went ahead and produced them to await the Feds order.) But then the Fed said they had no more plans to arder any more halves in the foreseeable future, and the Mint was stuck with them. For almost two years they sat in the Mint vaults hopeing for a Fed order while the collectors whined about not being able to get them. So eventually the Mint started selling hem directly to collectors. Then the collectors whined because they cost too much, and because they kept selling them year after year (meaning after they bought theirs) and that the mint was ruining the aftermarket. I'm not sure where they got the idea that the Mint was supposed to help develop and protect an aftermarket in coins struck for circulation.
