What Do You Consider "Low Mintage"?

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.

Why then are coins like 1998 25c listed when none were minted for circulation and 1992 25c listed with a fairly large mintage of about 120 million? I didn't bother to look any further there is something flawed with your analysis.

The thing is, low mintage numbers don't necessarily equate to what is actually harder to find. Here are a couple observations of my own (using post-1952 coins), which factor in condition, because honestly, grade-rarities probably trump low mintage values (kay date rarities are not included in this list):

- 1953 SF 1-cent in mint state red (95% red or better)
- 1985 to 1991 mint state 1-cent without those dang 'water spots'
- 1964 5-cent in gem grades
- 1985 25c in gem grades
- 1953 LD NSF 50c in MS-64+
- 1968 50c in gem grades
- 1985 50c in gem grades
- 1956 silver dollar in grades MS-64+
- 1972 nickel dollar in choice grades
- 1979 nickel dollar in choice grades
- 1985 nickel dollar in choice grades
- colourized anything in modern coinage is tougher to find in gem grades, due to the extra handling after the strike, especially the newer colourized $2 coins.

None of these are "rare". An example of a "rare" modern coin would be the 1954 NSF 5-cent.