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.

Well yesterday the US Mint put this year’s 2009 Clad Proof Sets on sale for $29.95. Yes I ordered my sets at noon like most die hard collectors and got confirmation they are in stock!  The website seemed to die for a few hours shortly after I ordered my sets

Ya I ordered 50 sets...hopefully the quality is good!

The biggest addition to these sets besides the District/Territory quarters is it contains all four of the versions  of the 2009 Lincoln penny struck in bronze from the S mint!  This is the same composition that the Lincoln cent began being minted in 1909.  The silver Proof sets will contain the same pennies as the clad Proof set. The uncirculated sets, to be released later this summer, will contain the same four 2009 Lincoln cents with the same composition but they will be struck with a Satin Finish featuring the P and D mints… eight different pennies in all!

So this year there will be eight circulation strike Copper over Zinc 2009 Lincoln pennies, eight Satin Finish Bronze 2009 Lincoln pennies, and four Proof Bronze 2009 Lincoln pennies for a grand total of twenty different varieties of the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth and the Centennial of the Lincoln cent!  Not to mention the medals and silver dollars the Mint has produced this year in honor of our 16th President.  This is almost becoming a collector’s nightmare.  Not only are these 2009 Lincoln pennies aren’t being circulated but it seems the only way someone can obtain them for their collection is through the secondary market or directly from the Mint.  Needless to say it is probably going to be a banner year for profit for the US Mint.

I sure hope the Mint doesn’t follow suit of the baseball card world and start putting “random inserted limited edition coins” in mint rolls!  If you can afford it, have fun buying these unique sets…if not wait a few years and these regular issue 2009 Lincoln’s may make it into circulation, but don’t hold your breath too long!

I read where they are going to limit the rolls to a maximum of 6 rolls per time through the line. Additionally, there will be NO box sales at this event!  Does this make sense to anyone? If the demand is there go on and let people buy as much as they want and get them out of the storage areas!  All this creates is high prices for 50 cent rolls, the Mint should back two tractor trailers up the event and sell boxes to whomever wants them. I think it’s ridiculous for the Mint to not meet the demand of the public after making such a big deal about the release of these new 2009 pennies this year. Rather than hoard them in their own vaults, make them available to the public! This distribution system will continue to make the prices high and more difficult for collectors to obtain them. I guess $8.95 for a two roll Mint set of P and D won’t be so bad after all, since the Mint is obviously not about distributing the new pennies at face value!

Anyone else see the flaw in this?

I received email confirmation that my credit card has been charged and my 5 sets of the Lincoln Birthplace Log cabin roll sets have been shipped late last night. I figure they should be here before the weekend. I see where a lot of people are pre-selling these for $65 to $85 a set! I might put a set or two up for that kind of money!  So, now with those being shipped and the Mint offering subscriptions to the proof sets now, it will be interesting to see how many of copper cents they will have.  I will post photos upon receipt of my sets. Check your mailboxes and front steps!

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.

I have been able to track down and confirm that the release of the “Formative years in Indiana” 2009 Lincoln cent is going to occur on May 14th at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. This penny is the one with young Abe with an axe reading a book portrayed on it. It had been speculated that the event may occur in Indianapolis at the Capital, this squelches those rumors as the Indianapolis news was the first source to confirm this locale.

As far as coin collectors go, with all the frenzy of the first release let’s hope the US Mint plans ahead and brings enough for everyone there to get a box or two if they want. Let’s hope after the US Mint has now realized that they can get $13.90 for a P and D roll, that they don’t offer those exclusively and do away with the “penny exchange”. I am sure that however many they bring they will sell them out and hopefully the people working the penny sales don’t get too greedy and buy them all up themselves or cut a deal with some dealers to get the vast majority of what has been brought for the release. People’s greed sometimes amazes me, so I am not going to sugar coat that speculation. At the prices the first release brought I would be willing to take a second mortgage and buy all they have! Ha!

For those of you wanting to travel there for the event, let me warn you…Lincoln City, IN is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I would expect dealers to be on hand to get their mitts on this second 2009 Lincoln release. But it should be interesting to see what kind of turn out will be there. I plan on being there since it’s about 1.5 hours from where I live, but I can see the vultures starting to circle now.

Just like clockwork, at 12 PM EST today, the $8.95 + $4.95 shipping two roll sets went on sale at the US Mint website. Orders are limited to 5 per household. Those of us who attempted to order more five were surprised to find out there was a limit. It’s been rumored that maybe these rolls contain the 95% copper cents we have been hearing about due to the lofty price of these 50 cent rolls. It is a good opportunity for coin collectors to get their hands on BU rolls from both Mints.

It is interesting to see that they are back ordered a whole another day already…sounds like a money maker for the Mint already!

It appears more 2009 pennies were minted during the month of February raising the total for the Philadelphia mint to 194.4 million and the Denver Mint to 342.4 million. It is not clear whether or not this was the minting of the new 2009 Lincoln Formative years penny or more of the 2009 Lincoln birthplace log cabin penny. Either way the production numbers are super low as stated in a previous post, the US Mint is usually in the BILLIONS of cents minted by this time of the year. Hopefully a breakout of the four types of 2009 Lincoln’s will be available in the future rather than a running total.

It still appears that the Philadelphia mint is producing far fewer than Denver at this point so I am trying to gather as may Phillies as I can!

Also it appears the Mint is going to be selling rolls 2009 Lincoln Birthplace Log Cabin from both mints for $8.95 + $4.95 for shipping beginning March 13th.