Bucket of Coins

Once again, another month has past and the US Mint’s release of their production for the month have been posted. The numbers for August seem to be on cue with what we have seen with the prior releases of the Birthplace Log Cabin and Formative Years Log Splitter cents. I am going to continue to stick by my guns and keep my assumption that July’s production numbers were reflective of the minting of the Professional Life penny.  That being said the Denver mint produced 216.0 million in July and August production numbers reflect another 141.6 million produced for a total Professional Life Lincoln cent mintage of 357.6 thus far.  However, the Philadelphia mint production appears to have finally topped the 400+ million LP3 cents being produced thus far by taking the July number of 284.9 million and adding August’s 145.2 million for a 2009 Lincoln Cent high mintage of 430.1 million through September 1. The total mintage across all series for 2009 Lincoln cents are 976.0 million for Denver mint and 957.2 million in Philadelphia for a total mintage of all 2009 pennies of 1933.2 Million or 1.9332 Billion.

It looks like out of all the series the LP1 Birthplace Log Cabins are going be the short run of the four series as it appears they continue to increase each production run. Keep in mind these numbers do not count mint/proof sets.

Well as 1000’s of 2009 Lincoln cent fans continue to wet their whistle for the next release featuring Lincoln’s Professional life, the US Mint has been busy preparing for it as well. The July production numbers have been released. It appears after last month’s limited production that July was a month of minting the Professional life cent. As seen before with the Log Cabin release, the Philadelphia mint produced about 24% less 2009 Lincoln cents between July 1 and August 1. The Philadelphia mint produced 216 million while the Denver Mint produced 284.8 million new pennies.  The graph below will illustrate and updated as if  this past month production as being the first month of production of 2009 Lincoln Professional life cents. Total production runs through 2009 cents are 834.4 million for the Denver Mint and 812 million for the Philadelphia Mint for a total of 1646.4 million.

2009 Lincoln Cent Mintages through August 1

As many have noticed the Log Cabin and Formative years pennies are now being found in change in most states, while full boxes have become more plentiful in the aftermarket arena. There seemed to be a larger distribution of the Formative Rail splitter cents than the Log Cabins. Perhaps this is the case due to the 2nd issue LP2s were placed in front of the LP1 Log Cabins. It will be interesting to see how long it will take for the Professional life cents to make it to circulation. Once again the Springfield, IL launch at the Old Capitol building anticipates over 10,000 participants to be amongst the first to obtain the 3rd design change for the 2009 Lincoln aka LP3. Also, the US Mint will be selling the two roll sets at noon EST for those not able to attend the Springfield event.

I was planning on attending, but after hearing the numbers and having attended the Hodgenville, KY and the Lincoln City, IN launches, I do not think it is worth my time or gas to stand in that kind of line especially if they are planning to limit the number of rolls a person can buy. I guess I am confused, why not sell boxes? If the public wants them let them have them…as we see within 5 months both of the first two releases are available and accessible. I saw were a box of  the Philadelphia mint log cabins that once sold for $750+ a box when they were only available at Hodgensville are now attainable for 2x face. I think that’s a pretty good deal to have a box of new rolls.

Another thing that happened last month was the Denver Mint’s additional production of the 2009 Nickel! It was all the hoopla when they announced they have stopped production the nickel and dime back in April. But as expected from my perspective, they fired up and made an additional 7.44 million while the Philadelphia mint did not produce any additional in July. Keep in mind these nickels are still a lot lower production than in years past and the distribution seems to be sparse at best.  The market for these may be slightly weakened due to the additional minting but how many NICE ones have anyone seen if you have seen one at all?  I purchased a roll and it should be here in the next day or so and I’ll share my findings. Hopefully they will be sharp and not all banged up as in years past.

June has come and gone. Now the world prepares for the release in Springfield, IL of the third 2009 Lincoln Professional life cent in August.  The US Mint produced 164.4 million Denver minted pennies while the Philiadelphia mint produced 64.4 million. I am going out on a limb here and say that those were probably the final runs of the Formative / Log Splitter cents. If this is the case then there are 364 million Formative years minted in Denver and 375.6 million Formative years minted in Philiadelphia. As expected, these numbers are much higher than the 2009 Lincoln Log Cabin series. It also seems the Formative year LP2 pennies are everywhere. One has to assume that the Log Cabin LP1 boxes are probably in a vault covered up with LP2 Formative year boxes, so it may be a while before any of those start to appear!

*Assumes 2009 Lincoln Formative years cent run completed in June.

May’s updated numbers just came out. As previously reported the US Mint minted 284.8 million Philadelphia Birthplace pennies and 350 million Denver Birthplace pennies. Through May 2009, the Mint has produced a total of 549.6 million 2009 Lincoln cents in Denver and 596 million in Philadelphia. The difference represents the mintages of the 2009 Lincoln Formative years Rail Splitter cents. Therefore, so far 311.2 million Formative years Rail Splitter pennies have been produced by the Philadelphia mint while the Denver mint has produced a mere 199.6 million in the same time period.  This is the opposite of what we saw with the Birthplace cents. There were a lot more produced in Denver than Philadelphia up until the last month of minting which the Philadelphia mint produced a large quantity to close the gap between the two mints.

2009 Lincoln Cent Mintages as of  6/1/2009:

Lincoln Birthplace – P Mint -          284.8 million  Final mintage number

Lincoln Birthplace – D Mint -          350.0 million  Final mintage number

Lincoln Formative Years Rail Splitter – P Mint -          311.2 million  through June 1, 2009

Lincoln Formative Years Rail Splitter – D Mint -          199.6 million  through June 1, 2009

Well I made it down to the release on May 14th. It was a complete contrast to what they Hodgenville Lincoln Birthplace release was. Rather than having most of the 500 hundred or so people attend the actual ceremony prior to the cent exchange the majority of the 4000+ at the Lincoln City unveiling got in line for the coin exchange.

Hodgenville, KY 2009 Lincoln Birthplace Log Cabin penny release ceremony photo:

Estimated about 500 people were there...

Compared to the Lincoln Formative Years Rail Splitter penny ceremony:

Really light attendance since everyone was in line!

I got there a little later than most and ended up having to park about a mile away near the campgrounds. I was lucky enough to jump on a shuttle to the “end of the line”. I took photos of the line, keep in mind not one person was photographed more than once in these photos and they run from the tent of the distribution to where I was standing.

Tent of the Cent Distribution

Line looking back from the concession area by Ampitheater

Line going down to the parking lot from the top of the hill

Looking back up the hill at the Cent Tent from Parking lot

Bottom of Hill on sidewalk around parking lot

Parking lot line going around the bend

Coming out of the parking lot area towards the entrance road

Looking back to the end of the line...keep in mind the ceremony was still going on!

It was rumored about $10,000 worth of cents were brought to the event. Though when I asked the Brinks guys they said “We aren’t allowed to say”. Like who cares, I am sure Coin World will have the actual amount?!? I got a few photos before the Penny Exchange started in the tent and in the Brinks truck along with one with the last 36 boxes prior to being moved to the tent.

Getting ready for the 2009 Lincoln Formative Years exchange

What was left after placing the first batch on the tables seen above

The last 36 boxes prior to being moved to the Tent

Myself and the crew with me managed to get through the line twice. We were sixth in line when they ran out! Ugh, I was next in line when they ran out in Hodgenville. Oh well just my luck. But we did have a nice haul. We combined our 2009 Lincoln Formative Years Rail Splitter cents and had just under two boxes.

First box, almost full

The full box of 2009 Lincoln formative year cents

I was stuck in traffic for some time and decided to go get some food while the line at the Post Office died down so I could get these penny rolls stamped and canceled as proof that they came from the event and not from Washington DC or when they hit the banks. When I arrived back at the Lincoln Boyhood home National Park the line was still long. I waited 3 hours to get them stamped and canceled. After that I made my 1.5 hour drive home and man was I exhausted!

Yes that line represents 3 hours of my life...I was 5th from the last.

View of the Post Office Cancellation area from inside the Museum

After getting home, I started looking at the rolls a little more closely. Truthfully I have to say some of these are the most beat up looking coins I have ever seen to be BRAND NEW!. There are some that are pathetic. No wonder MS66 is about the highest grade anyone has gotten. In this batch of P’s, someone would be very lucky to get an MS66 in my opinion. It’s almost embarrassing that the US Mint let the quality control of these 3 month type coins be so shoddy. All in all it was a great experience, I guess I need to gear up for Springfield, IL since it is going to probably be more crazy.

After checking on some websites, it appears that the US Mint’s idea of making the LP2 two roll 2009 Lincoln formative years Rail Splitter sets available through their site at the same time, it has kept the secondary market prices down a lot further than the 2009 Lincoln Birthplace pennies. But even so, it may be a few years before we see any of these cents out in banks. Only time will tell.

The latest mintage numbers show that during March 2009, the Philadelphia mint produced 90 million cents while the Denver Mint produced just a mere 8 million cents.  Perhaps the small batch of Denver cents minted in March are for the US Mint D/P wrapped two roll sets available on their site? If 8 million was for these sets then 160,000 rolls are available and with the 5 set maximum…assuming that everyone ordered 5 sets means at least 32,000 people could receive them.

Adding these totals to what was produced in January and February bring the total mintages for Denver to 350.4 million and Philadelphia mint to 284.4 million.  It is unclear if these represent the last of the production of the Lincoln Birthplace cent or if it is the beginning of the Lincoln boyhood home in Indiana penny or if it’s the entire mintage for the year…stay tuned for this month’s totals.

Well, as many have come to realize 2009 Lincoln Cent mania has hit! A roll sold for $100 yesterday…makes you wish you had a few boxes of them doesn’t it?

I think that it is being driven by the fact that as of this moment, the only 2009 pennies out there are the ones the US Mint brought to the small town in LaRue County, KY called Hodgenville. Truly the town’s claim to fame is being the birthplace of our 16th President Abraham Lincoln. The engraving of the log cabin he was born in now on the reverse of the new penny. You can actually visit and see this cabin as it is preserved by being placed in at building that looks similar in it’s design to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

It has reported there were a minimum purchase of 2 rolls and a maximum purchase of 10 rolls per person per time through the line. At the end of all the “2 through 10 roll buyers”, there were 80 sealed boxes of the first Lincoln cent in the series of four, left for the remaining twenty or so dealers and public that had the want and funds to purchase them at the rate of one box per time through the line until sold out. It was observed that even though 80 boxes were announced left for sale for those in line, less than 60 were sold. Conversations revealed that there was some actual bidding in the hallways for boxes starting at $50 a box to $100 a box being transferred in the parking lot of the LaRue County High School. So you’d have to assume that the staff working there heard this and potentially wanted to triple or quadruple their money and bought the boxes themselves. Can’t blame them!

Ironically, there has been sales of full boxes for $700 on a popular auction site at the time of this writing. A friend of mine had called the US Mint and inquired about when the 2009 Lincoln cents would be available for purchase. He was told the 2009 cents were not available and they did not know when they would be, even though they debuted in Kentucky on Lincoln’s Bicentennial Birthday launch sponsored by the US Mint and the Commonwealth of Kentucky a day before!

Speculation is that they may be delayed for release into circulation due to the abundance of pennies in public, private, and bank’s possession. This spurred my curiosity, so I had gone to one of my local banks to inquire about if they had rolls of America’s newest type coin only to be sold a brand new box of 2007 Lincoln cents. My bank claimed they don’t order new cents that often and they get most of their re-rolled from Brinks rather than the US Mint. So does this mean those 80 boxes are going to be in demand? You better believe it!

So essentially that means until the banks lessen their saturation of these copper covered zinc and copper Lincoln cents, they won’t have any. For collectors this presents a dilemma. Here we are, wanting to get our hands on the 4th reverse of the Lincoln cent in it’s 100 year life. The first was the 1909 VDB Wheat penny reverse, next the 1909 no VDB Wheat penny reverse, next the 1959 Lincoln Memorial penny, and now the 2009 Lincoln’s Birthplace or “Log Cabin” reverse of this new cent. All this time the original bust designed by Victor D. Brenner has remained unchanged. It is also the first coin that had a “real” person on it along with being the longest running coin produced by the US Mint.

This delay has to make you question the future releases of the next three 2009 Lincoln cents? They are supposed to be coming out every three months. If there is a surplus right now, adding more may cause even more demand and frenzy for collectors to obtain this four coin one year type run. Actually these four cents are three month type coins! They are definitely a must for a Lincoln cent collector but the question is how long will it take for you to get some of the fiery red cents! The only online store that I have found is HERE, the rest are all on auction sites.

Good luck and have fun!