What Do You Consider "Low Mintage"?

We've all knowingly over-paid at times, wolfman. But a few bucks here and there doesn't mean anything in the long run and I find the enjoyment that I get out of my over-paid-for coins to be worth more than the extra money I've laid out.

To get back to the thread topic, I don't know as the term "Low Mintage" can be contained to a single number. Supply and demand dictates desirability for any given coin in the market as a whole. I think that "Low Mintage" varies from coin to coin, and might be better defined as a mintage lower or perhaps equal to the number of collectors who want that specific coin, or some such.

Thanks to all for your input. I'm sure in 40 years I will find out what ones I should have kept!

Wolfman, Canadian business strikes minted prior to 1937 are what I consider LOW MINTAGE. (1858-1936)

Glenn

It depends. I know Canada 50c coins really have some crazy low mintages. But they are readily available because they come direct from the RCM via sets and rolls. I don't believe they are released for circulation.

I know that this original post is 6 years old! But I don't think that it was answered satisfactorily.

As such, I analyzed circulation mintages from 1950 - 2017 for Canadian coins and decided to call any coin where the mintage is below 1 standard deviation from the average as "Rare" or "Key date" and anything that is half of one standard deviation as "uncommon" or "semi-key date". The calculation was based on the decade of issue.

This was purely a mathematical exercise

These are the results that I got for coins from 1950+ (excluding varieties):

Penny key dates: 1954, 60, 61, 70, 71, 88, 90, 96, 99.
Penny semi-key dates: 1955, 66, 72, 73, 77, 97, 2012.

Nickels key dates: 1954, 55, 66, 69, 70, 71, 91, 97, 2000, 03, 14.
Nickels semi-key dates: 1957, 58, 63, 67, 73, 76, 83, 88, 90, 96, 2002, 04, 13, 15.

For the rest, I have excluded coins with years that they contain silver -- all those coins should be kept :-)

Dimes key dates: 1970, 71, 91, 96, 97, 2003, 13, 15.
Dimes semi-key dates: 1972, 82, 90, 2000, 04, 05, 14

Quarters key dates: 1970, 71, 72, 83, 91, 2001, 03.
Quarters semi-key dates: 1968, 71, 87, 88, 89, 92, 98, 2005, 12, 13.

50 cent key dates: 1977, 90, 2006, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11
50 cent semi-key dates: 1968, 71, 87, 88, 89, 92, 98, 2005, 12, 13.

Dollars key dates: 1977, 90, 2006, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11.

Dollars semi-key dates: 1972, 76, 83, 84 (Voyageur), 91, 92, 2004, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17

Twonies key dates: 1998, 2003, 04
Twonies semi-key dates: 2008, 10, 13, 14.

Thoughts?

I think that you need to look up the definition of "rare".... not a single coin up there is even within shouting distance of "rare". I think that monikers like "sometimes hard to find in grade" or Difficult to find or somewhat scarce are more believable. I think those that you call as "keys" or "rare" should just be considered "keepers" and call it good.

In the Canadian context (which is much the same as for the Australian situation),
for "low mintage",
circulation coins: less than 100,000.
NCLT collector coins: less than 1,000 coins.