Why such low mintages for America the Beautiful Quarters?

For comparison, the last year of the state quarter program, the mint produced 2.4 billion quarters.
In 2010, the mint only produced 347 Million National Park Quarters. The only national park quarter I've gotten in change since the programs start was Hot Springs. Does anyone know why the mint is making so few of these? Its going to make it hard for the younger generation of collectors who get their coins from circulation because these coins are so scare to come by in circulation.

 

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my own thought is way too many state quarters were made
if you look at the 10 yrs before the state quarters(89-98), the mint made about 1.5 billion a year.......then the state quarters is about 3.5 billion a year ...... so the mint made about 3 times the amount of quarters needed. i guess 20 yrs worth of quarters has already been made sitting around waiting for your pockets
plus Plastic doesnt help either !!!!!! Snowman

 

I think a combination of people hoarding the state quarters when they came out, but the novelty wore off, and the economy. I think a lot of the state quarters that were put away would have stayed there, but with the economy they were needed for bills and spent heavily. I have also seen large numbers of bicentennial quarters in circulation the last few years.

Chris

 

Also people are using ATM cards and not so much cash

 

Do you remember late 2008 when the economy melted down? Well when that happened TONS of coins came pouring out of jars, buckets, cans etc from houses all over the country. The Fed was literally swimming in surplus coinage. (You will note that the mintages of the few Territories quarters also dropped precipitously.) Well when the 2010 ATB quarters came out there were 1.) still plenty of quarters on hand to satisfy demand (As Snowman said, they had been making three times as many coins each year than were needed.) and 2.) unlike the state quarters, banks could no longer specifically order shipments of the new quarters. They would only get whatever happens to be on hand when they order and the Fed ships circulated coins first then Unc coins with the oldest dates first. This means that if a bank orders quarters the only way they would get ATB quarters would be if the local Fed bank didn't happen to have any circulated or state quarters on hand. Since they had LOTS of circulated quarters and state quarters on hand orders for ATB quarters were very small and we get the low mintages

 

Yeah, that is what I meant, Conder just said it better.

Chris

 

The US Mint mints coinage according to the needs of the Federal Reserve System and its member banks.

During the period when the Statehood quarters were issued, coinage requirements were at all time highs due to a large economic expansion (except 2001-2002), and the alleged shrillness over computer collapse, colloquially called Y2K. Collector demand of coinage overall and Statehood quarters in particular was unusally high, as well. It was often estimated that 100 million people were collecting Statehood quarters. The series was very popular. I helped several non-collectors build a collection of the series for enjoyment.

In addition to purchasing my annual proof, silver proof and uncirculated sets, I did what I usually have done with my collecting habits, I pulled every Statehood quarter I could from circulation. I accumulated 3200 of these quarters and then decided to stop due in part to a lack of continued interest and my desire to eliminate credit card debts and payoff my sports car loan early.

As the economy began to slow down, coinage demand dropped by two-thirds and continues to be minted at far lower levels that four years ago.

 

I believe the answer is simple in that US Banks do NOT have the option of ordering solid full boxes of the ATB quarters like they did with the State Quarters. Because of this, those coins that are produced and sent to the Federal Reserve simply get mixed in with the current stockpile of quarters.

Has anybody actually seen and boxes of ATB Quarters? Last I heard, finding full rolls was next to impossible with the US Mint being the only source.

 

I don't think I have seen a national park quarter in change so far. I just ordered some .unc's for .75 each. There...done

 

That's odd, I regularly get full rolls of mixed national parks quarters from the bank. If there are specific ones you are looking for as fillers (read, lightly circulated) just let me know and give me your address. I'd be more than happy to send you some.

 

Thanks for all the replies guys. Its still a shame though. These are some of the most beautiful coins the mint has produced in a very long time The last truly inspired coin was arguably the Walking Lib Half dollar that went away in 47. I personally am tired of our generic presidents.

 

Too many years in a row of too many different coins.
When the state quarters started they where a kick start for many collectors.
Then they added the presidents.
Now the Native Americans change every year too.
Anybody know how many coins you would need now for a year set of Proof Clad, Proof Silver, and circulation P & D mint coins?

 

A lot

 

Aren't we all. Its a lot like the Roman empire, they were growing and prosperous when they have images of Roma and mythological figures on their coins, as soon as they started having old white guys on the coins things started going downhill.

I wonder who our Romulus Augustus will be?

Chris

 

I'm scared to see how modern us mint sculptures would modernize lady liberty if they brought her back across all denominations. A Kardashian sister with big edited wearing a crown? Sorry I wouldn't be on board with that one.

 

It doesn't have to be lady lib. Images from nature like on Canadian currency and the National Park quarters are a perfect example. Anything but a bunch of bland,ticked off looking presidents.

 

I just had images of a series dedicated to... Iconic Figures.

May West, Jane Russell, Marylin Monroe, Jane Mansfield, Elizabeth Taylor, Raquel Welch...

Now that's a series that would draw interest.

 

Yes indeed. Maybe even more so than state quarters. but with quarter production tied up with the America the Beautiful quarters, Maybe Dimes or Nickels would be better suited for that series.

 

Now that's what I'm talking about! That would be a highly collectible series. I collect pre-68 Canadian for exactly this reason, beautiful designs and something different and natural.

 

why?

Because:

1) we are in a recession;
2) no one cares