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