The U.S. Mint’s pace of striking coins slowed for the first time in four months in April but it was still quick.
The Mint produced over 1.27 billion coins last month — spread across cents, nickels, dimes and quarters, representing declines of 12% from March and 3.1% from April 2021. The 1 billion production level has been topped in 14 of the last 15 months.
Here’s how the month compares against others in the past year:
April 2021 to April 2022 Circulating Coin Production
| Month | Mintages | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| April 2022 | 1,278.88 M | 6 |
| March 2022 | 1,452.58 M | 3 |
| February 2022 | 1,260.12 M | 7 |
| January 2022 | 1,249.84 M | 8 |
| December 2021 | 953.37 M | 13 |
| November 2021 | 1,104.7 M | 12 |
| October 2021 | 1,213.86 M | 9 |
| September 2021 | 1,169.28 M | 11 |
| August 2021 | 1,187.32 M | 10 |
| July 2021 | 1,505.24 M | 1 |
| June 2021 | 1,348.60 M | 4 |
| May 2021 | 1,473.06 M | 2 |
| April 2021 | 1,320.28 M | 5 |
The U.S. Mint’s main mission is to manufacture coins based on the nation’s demand and transport them to Reserve Banks and their coin terminals for distribution into circulation.
The Federal Reserve orders more 1-cent coins from the U.S. Mint than any other denomination even as data shows that it costs 2.1 cents to make and distribute each one. The Mint struck 708.8 million Lincoln cents in April, representing 55.4% of the circulating-quality coins produced last month.
Month-Over-Month
In month-over month comparisons for coins used daily by Americans, production totals in April declined:
- 9.2% for Lincoln cents,
- 5.8% for Jefferson nickels,
- 25.3% for Roosevelt dimes, and
- 5.9% for quarters.
Native American $1 coins are no longer ordered by the Federal Reserve, but they are still made in circulating quality for coin collectors. The same is true, or was until last year, for Kennedy half-dollars. Traditionally in January, the U.S. Mint produces both denominations to the expected amounts needed for the entire year. That turned true in 2021 for Native American dollars, but not for halves which saw their mintage last year increase in February, March, April, May and August.
Published mintages of 2022 Native American dollars were unchanged in April, with equal splits of 980,000 from Denver and 980,000 from Philadelphia for a combined 1.96 million coins. In contrast, the 2021 dollar logged splits of 1.26 million for Denver and 1.26 million for Philadelphia for 2.52 million coins.
Mintages for the 2022 Kennedy half-dollar also remained unchanged from January. They stand at 1.6 million from Denver and 1.6 million from Philadelphia for a total of 3.2 million. Last year’s half-dollar ended with a mix of 7.7 million from Denver and 5.4 million from Philadelphia for a combined 13.1 million.
The U.S. Mint started selling rolls, bags and boxes of 2022 Native American dollars on Feb. 9. It released rolls and bags of 2022 Kennedy halves on May 5.
Here’s a summary of all the circulating-quality coins produced last month:
U.S. Mint Circulating Coin Production in April 2022
| Denver | Philadelphia | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Cent | 353,600,000 | 355,200,000 | 708,800,000 |
| Jefferson Nickel | 59,760,000 | 57,120,000 | 116,880,000 |
| Roosevelt Dime | 123,500,000 | 116,500,000 | 240,000,000 |
| Quarters | 111,400,000 | 101,800,000 | 213,200,000 |
| Kennedy Half-Dollar | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Native American $1 Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 648,260,000 | 630,620,000 | 1,278,880,000 |
Minting facilities in Philadelphia and Denver are tasked with making all U.S. coins for commerce. Last month, the Denver Mint struck 648.26 million coins and the Philadelphia Mint minted 630.62 million coins for the combined 1,278,880,000 coins.
Year-to-date, the Denver Mint made 2,731,860,000 coins and the Philadelphia Mint made 2,509,560,000 coins. They combine to 5,241,420,000 coins, which is 15.5% more than the 4,538,040,000 coins minted in the first four months of last year.
This next table lists coin production totals by denomination and by U.S. Mint facility:
YTD 2022 Circulating Coin Production by Denomination
| 1 ¢ | 5 ¢ | 10 ¢ | 25 ¢ | 50 ¢ | N.A. $1 | Total: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denver | 1519.6M | 264.48M | 528M | 417.2M | 1.6M | .98M | 2731.86M |
| Philadelphia | 1411.6M | 234.48M | 469.5M | 391.4M | 1.6M | .98M | 2509.56M |
| Total | 2931.2M | 498.96M | 997.5M | 808.6M | 3.2M | 1.96M | 5241.42M |
If the current production pace stretched through to December, the annual mintage for 2022 would top 15.7 billion coins. The U.S. Mint manufactured nearly 14.5 billion coins for circulation in 2021.
2022 Quarter Mintages
Lastly, in addition to the 2022 Native American dollar with its one-year-only design, the U.S. Mint has released the first two issues from their four-year program of American Women quarter dollars. Each features a unique design. They include:
- the 2022 Maya Angelou quarter which began circulating in early January. (The Mint started selling collectible Maya Angelou quarters in rolls and bags on Feb. 7.)
- the 2022 Dr. Sally Ride quarter which began circulating toward the end of March. (The Mint started selling collectible Dr. Ride Sally Angelou quarters in rolls and bags on March 22.)
This last table offers a breakdown of this year’s mintages that have been reported by coin design, including the pair of quarters just mentioned:
2022 Circulating Coin Production by Design
| Denver | Philadelphia | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lincoln Cent | 1,519,600,000 | 1,411,600,000 | 2,931,200,000 |
| Jefferson Nickel | 264,480,000 | 234,480,000 | 498,960,000 |
| Roosevelt Dime | 528,000,000 | 469,500,000 | 997,500,000 |
| Maya Angelou Quarter | 258,200,000 | 237,600,000 | 495,800,000 |
| Dr. Sally Ride Quarter | 155,800,000 | 152,600,000 | 308,400,000 |
| Wilma Mankiller Quarter (expected release in June) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nina Otero-Warren Quarter (expected release in summer) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Anna May Wong Quarter (expected release in fall) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kennedy Half-Dollar | 1,600,000 | 1,600,000 | 3,200,000 |
| Native American $1 Coin | 980,000 | 980,000 | 1,960,000 |
| Total | 2,728,660,000 | 2,508,360,000 | 5,237,020,000 |
There are 4.4 million in quarters that the U.S. Mint has yet to officially assign to a design. These are likely the first of many more quarters to depict Wilma Mankiller.
Low numbers for Sally Ride. A lot of pennies, wonder how long we will make them.
Allan,
As long as the other coins are minted you’ll need pennies to make change. So the penny stays until all the other denominations are done away with.
Guess the quarter scarcity over with as the business that use them aren’t hollering much (vending machines, coin laundry mats, etc.).
Enjoy your weekend 🙂
other places have removed their low-denomination coins by simply rounding off. e.g. in canada, you round off cash transactions to nearest nickel. it’s not that hard really, if people don’t care enough about cents to just leave them on a counter then they don’t care enough to worry about rounding off. you can of course still use exact value in cashless transactions such as checks or credit cards.
Good point. USG enjoys employing people. Canada low population and can’t afford Gubmint waste like USG can; also, Canada smaller economy while USA larger, those penny transactions matter and add to bottom line in the multitude of activity here.
I will never leave change. When you’ve been poor, you know they all add up. I can imagine “rounding off” is equal to rounding up – because no one is going to round down. Another way of creating inflation. The IRS will go after a bill it sends out for $0.00. (That’s not a joke – they’ve actually done it. They would not leave the guy alone until they had a check for $0.00.)
So I shouldn’t spend my Sally Ride quarters on laundry.
as inflation goes up, cents become less and less useful. think about it this way. the US gave up on the half cent way back in 1857 because it didn’t have sufficient economic value (!) at that time. and yet, adjusted for inflation, half a cent in 1857 is worth about $0.17 today. That’s more than not only the cent but the nickel and dime also, and even encroaching into quarter territory. so long past time to move on from cents. sure, keep making them for collectors much like half dollars and dollars, but there is no economic reason to… Read more »
Then a penny today will be worth more in 165 years too —\_/— 😉
Not that I’m a penny fan but someone in US Gubmint does to keep them in monetary system.
actually it’s mostly mining industry lobbyists tugging at congresspeople and also probably the mint workers union are the ones that really want to keep cranking out cents. the mint itself probably would love to get rid of the cent – because it eats into their budget (as cents cost more to produce than they make from selling it to the fed), as the mint has to operate without federal budget allocation (i.e., they have to get by on just the profits they make from seignorage and collector coins – which explains why they keep increasing premiums on coins, to help… Read more »
At least it was made of copper. Pennies today aren’t. We need to get back to the standard they originally used. Enough of this “play money”
The US Mint is another example of Technology not being allowed to stand in the way of corruption and Human failure:
Robots and Computers are replacing Humans in many manufacturing process and producing a coin would be one of the easier processes to completely replace Humans but then all of those special Gubmint employees wouldn’t have those cushy Jobs.
And… perhaps NGC couldn’t payoff a computer to produce error coins just for them and BOTS would instantly be zapped out of the ordering process by the Human-less Super Computer.
Hi Major D, yes I received the same email from the Mint today.
Yep Major D, got that email too.
You guys must have more frequent buyer miles than I do
I Noticed Not Many Nickels We’re Minted. Reason Why?
The penny remains because Accountants and bookkeepers want Everything balanced to the penny
Ha ha ha – right! To the last cent 😉
Unless you’re in Canada. There are no cents.
Cents or sense – DOH! 😮 😉