Hey all. Is this correct, the mint year on coinage doesn’t necessarily correlate with the year released? For example the US mint is required by law to produce a certain amount of money each year, however they may hold that currency and release it later.
I don't believe there are any requirements for minting or releasing the coin with respect to the date on the coin. For example, they were minting 1964 coins into 1965 and 1966.
Your question is very much related to my comments on First Strike, First Release, etc. The mint may make 2020 Silver Eagles in 2019. Then hold them for release in 2020. They are stored for months before release. Manufacturing inventory is usually on a first in, last out basis, unless there are perishable reasons to make it otherwise. Therefore, it is impossible to say that any coin is First Strike.
Bicentennial quarters, half dollars, and dollars were minted from July 4, 1975 until December 31, 1976 according to the Mint. Because they didn't want people hoarding a rarer date, no quarters, half dollars, or dollars were dated 1975: the ones minted from January 1, 1974 to July 3, 1975 were all dated 1974.
Before 1972 the mint and FED just shoved coins into warehouses and removed them when some were needed. It wasn't in the least unusual for pallets of very old BU coins to come rolling out. But then in 1972 they began rotating out the oldest coins in stock first. This means most coins are released within a year and a half of production but some warehouses are overfilled and it can take as loong three years for coins to cycle all the way through. Of course new coins tend to flow to the emptiest warehouses so many coins are issued almost immediately.
All you have to do is look at the Product Schedule to see how things happen. There are many coins issued by the mint starting as early as January 3. They don't open the presses on January 1 and start striking coins. Many of the coins were struck 5 or 6 months earlier. There is only one "first strike" and it is kept by the mint. If you buy a first strike coin you are buying a label with a coin inside that may have been the last one produced. As far as "Early Release", you are just confirming that you got you order processed before most others. Doesn't make any sense to me.
The law requires the coins to bear the date of the year they were minted. The mint interprets this to mean the year they are released, so coins minted with a year later than the year they are actually struck is OK as long as they don't release them until the date on the coin.
Yes, and this happens every year. It has to in order to get he coins released on an acceptable schedule.
