Lowest Mintage Coin You Own?

Oh my! This is going to be an epic thread!

Probably this 1858 proof quarter:




Red Book estimates 300, CCF's US Coin Facts estimates "about 150," and CoinFacts lists it at 100.

1858 Canada Large Cent, mintage ~400,000

It's Canada's first penny!

still looking, but so far its a 1868 $1 Type-3 Princess Indian Head and NGC is showing mintage of 10,500

I had thought maybe a 1847 Half Eagle from Dahlonega or Charlotte, but those are showing 64k & 84k

For business strikes, it looks like my 1850 Seated dollar is top dog. Mintage was 7,500. My proof strikes will have lower mintages but I need to go to the bank.

1885 Half- Mintage 5,200.

None of my low number struck coins are U.S., unfortunately :


Belgium 1859 20 Centimes, copper nickel, reverse legend 'ESSAI MOLNETAIRE' 23 mm diameter, same reverse design to the larger copper 32 mm diameter 10 centimes standard issue, but a large '20' central design on the obverse, Krause PN53, (number struck not given in Krause),

Belgium 1902 5 centimes prototype design development pattern struck in copper off metal strike, 20 mm diameter, with 13 'U's instead of obverse legend, (certainly less than 100 struck, probably no more than 5 or so),

New Zealand pattern 2 Cents struck for trial purposes with simplified Royal Mint building trademark emblem on both sides, a counter stamp 'D' on one side - these were issued to politicians and senior bank officials for their comment, my example allegedly from the personal collection of former Prime Minister of New Zealand Robert Muldoon (now deceased),

Peru 20 Centavos 1947 struck in copper (not bronze) Krause reports 300 struck, KM 221.2a

Papua New Guinea 5 Toea 1978FM 777 struck, Krause list the value at $3 only ,

A rare escapee from the Bangkok Mint: a trial strike on a rectangular copper clip of the standard 1977 1 Baht (number unknown),

British West Africa 1952 Shilling trial in nickel plated steel, KM TS1, the word 'TRIAL' in raised lettering on both obverse and reverse fields, (krause does not give number struck), has a small corrosion spot,

also have a reasonable collection of World error off metal strikes, struck on wrong planchets, and full brokages (unknown numbers struck) mainly from the British Royal Mint.


I have been on the lookout for pattern and trial coins for most of my collecting life. I have reported that I am not really interested in modern NCLT, but strictly speaking, that cannot be true.

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I had a gold Adelaide Pound - the first fully designed and struck coin in Australian history. About 250 of these exist. I had to sell it unfortunately, way back in 1976, to help raise money for an initial down payment on our first house.