Quote:Back in 2008 when the economy crashed a great many people were forced by their circumstances to "cash in" the change jars and other hoards of coins. This resulted in a glut of coinage at the Federal Reserve and there was very little need for any additional new coinage. Nickel and dime production was curtailed completely very early in the year, and the production of the cents and quarters were cut way back. (They probably would have stopped those completely as well but they had the problem that the quarters were the last year of the state/territory quarters, and the cents were the special one year only Lincoln bicentennial designs so they pretty much HAD to continue striking those.)
So all the coins that year, but especially the nickels and dimes, had unusually low mintages and they were pretty much all scooped up by hoarders hoping the low mintage would translate into a windfall some day. This means the coins will almost always be very common in MS condition, but will be scarce in actual circulation.
2005
Buffalo nickels are also a little harder to find, but they are available (except in my area). They are a little tougher than the mintage says they should be, because of once again serious hoarding. Almost 10% of the entire mintage was sold by the mint directly to collectors in rolls and bags, and many more people hoarded the ones they found in circulation. I don't know why the
Buffalo nickel is so popular but it is.
You can also add to the list any half dollars after 2001 and any Sac dollars 2001 - 2008, all NA dollars after 2012, and all
Presidential dollars after 2012. None of those were issued for circulation, but they do show up sometimes.
I knew that the economy crashed, but I didn't know that people were forced into cashing in their change. I also didn't know that the U.S. Mint didn't mint much coins that year. It's a new fact that I've learned on CCF. Thank you for sharing this information!
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Posted 06/23/2018 11:46 pm
