The U.S. Mint released production figures today for the Hot Springs National Park Quarter which confirms the suspicions of many people in the coin collector world - a very low mintage.
According to those figures, only 59,600,000 of the circulation quality quarters were minted - with 30,600,000 of those struck at the Mint's facility in Philadelphia and 29,000,000 struck at the Mint's facility in Denver.
Those dismal numbers are easily lower than the next lowest recent mintage found in the Northern Mariana Islands Quarter struck as part of last year's D.C. & U.S. Territories Quarters Program. Only 72,800,000 of those were struck in circulation quality.
In fact, the mintage on the Hot Springs National Park Quarter is so low that is requires going back fifty-five years to find a year with a lower annual mintage for a quarter dollar design. This occurred in 1955 when only 21,362,581 quarter dollars were struck for the year.
What makes the low numbers of the Hot Springs strike so dis-heartening is the fact that it means the general public will have a hard time finding the coins in their pocket-change. Many had hoped that this new America the Beautiful Quarters Program would prove to be just as successful as the Mint's earlier 50-State Quarters Program which ran from 1999-2008 and was seen to be very successful for the Mint.
However, with such a limited availability, it will be hard for the new program to gain any momentum with the public. It is not the Mint's fault, however, as it only produces enough of the circulation quality strikes to meet demand for everyday commerce. As the recent economic downturn has significantly lowered demand for new coinage, it was obvious in advance that the total numbers for these strikes would be low.
For the collectors, the Mint has indicated it still has vast quantities of the circulation Hot Springs Quarters available for purchase in either 100-coin bags or two-roll sets. Either option is available directly from the US Mint and may be purchased on the website of www.usmint.gov or via their toll-free number of 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468). Price is $35.95 for the 100-coin bags and $32.95 for the two-roll sets (which contain 80 coins).
Related World Mint Coins articles:
{ 0 comments… add one now }
{ 1 trackback }