The Importance of Mintage Figures

BY RICHARD GIEDROYC

■ Of how much value are mintage figures I see published in coin catalogs? Coinage mintage figures can be deceiving. Early U.S. Mint mintage records indicate the number of coins shipped rather than the number corresponding to the year in which the coins were produced. Some collectors use mintage figures to determine rarity. The number of surviving examples is a better statistic. Foreign commemorative coins, for example, that don’t sell are often melted by their mint. ■ How can I learn what the number of surviving specimens of a specific year for a denomination is? Several third-party certification services have what we call population reports. These reports aren’t 100 percent accurate since some coins are submitted for examination more than once to a particular service or are submitted to a…

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Numismatic News (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 18, 2025

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