US Mint Destroying Old Coins?

Hi, Does the US mint take worn coins out of circulation on a heavy basis? I've noticed a lot fewer 1960's clad quarters recently, and don't think anyone is pulling them out of circulation.

 

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The average life span for a coin is around 38 years. The Fed does on occasion pull circulated coins for recycling. They don't pick the years though. They pull it by the ton.

 

Hmm, thanks for the reply, this is interesting. Do you think that the weight difference between a worn coin and a new coin is enough that the fed can differentiate using some machine, or do you think that they just randomly pull coins for recycling (a mixture of good and bad coins get recycled). It would be good for the future of the hobby to be able to find really old coins in circulation, but if they are destroyed, that won't happen.

 

The Fed takes the worn coins out by the ton. There is no weight difference between a 1965 and a 2004 coin. The amount of wear is the only thing that makes the difference in weight. As the banks send in coins, the armored car companies pack them up and ship them back to the Fed. Once there, they are returned to the planchet making facility to be recycled.

 

Yikes, so they are pulling the old (typically more worn) coins from circulation. I was wondering why you rarely see really worn coins anymore.

 

they could also be melting SQs with them too!! Hey now that's a bonus!

 

well, actually,

i have been saving all of the 1960-1969 coins I can find

I have a bin full of them

 

Saw this on the web. It looks like the odds of finding a worn 1965 quarter in 10 years will be very low for young collectors filling in their albums from pocket change:

If a commercial bank has excess coins on hand, they may return the coins to the Federal Reserve bank. It then sorts the coins for fitness. They return badly worn or bent coins to the United States Mint, which melts them down and makes them into new coins. Also, the banks remove foreign and counterfeit coins from circulation. According to Federal Reserve sources, over 20 billion coins valued at well over $2 billion pass through their coin processing units each year.

 

would this make the earlier clads (such as 1965) a bit more valueable??

 

I don't think circulated clad coins will have any value, over face, for many years to come.
But, who knows? stranger things have happened.