I have recently began putting together a BU set of Jefferson Nickels. I was noticing that the majority of "S" Mint nickels early in the series have a lot lower mintage than its counterparts "D" and "P". What is the reason for this? Also, why was the mintage of the 1950-D nickel so low? David
The total mintage of any denomination for a given year is determined by the demands and orders given to the US Mint by the Federal Reserve. Then - the mint would determine, based on those orders, which part of the country needed more of the given denomination and it would issue orders to the mint in that part of the country to mint X number of coins in that denomination. How busy each individual mint was at a given time also played a part in which mint struck which coins. As for the '50-D Jeff - well that year they didn't need many nickels in the west.
