What's Considered Low Mintage For Modern Circulating Coins?

Your question is fairly ambiguous. Define "modern" and "Low mintage". Most coins from 1964 on with few exceptions are abundantly represented in most any quantity at any grade level. Some like the 1982's which had no mint sets issued may make higher grades tougher, or split issue years 1982 & 2009 Lincolns, or the Quarter series, or you get into the NIFC's of Kennedy's at 2 mil per year...what? Even at 2 mil, these are not in circulation mainly so high grades are readily available.

Your statement of under 5 mil is only proofs is not very accurate, but I do see your point. When considering what is a "special issue" or mint run as a proof or mint set, they are determined according to projected need(collectors, etc.)therefore there is a quasi-minimum mintage which could be considered as low or even rare in some odd cases. Commemorative s are their own breed, made to be limited and sometimes even short-suited as the halves.

John1 may be right, or close, sounds about right when all things considered.

Modern in this case means 1965 or later. I can't really define low mintage, and that's the point of my questions. What, by post 1964 standards is considered "low mintage" for a circulation issue coin? Obviously the term low mintage is being used a little loosely here. I don't mean low mintage for coins in general or for coins made especially for collectors. I mean low mintage specifically for the kind of coins you find in circulation. It's obviously going to be much higher than for classic or collector issued coins. But what number would that be? If it's under say 1/2 a million by classic coin standards or under 50 thousand by collector coin standards, would 15 million be the point where post '64 circulation issues are considered "low Mintage". I know it would vary from series to series, but I'm just asking about averages.

2009 seems like a low mintage year...can't find any pennies or nickels.

KK

Not an easy question. Think of our US population for needs of coinage. As the population grows, you would think coin quantities must increase accordingly. However, although we are now well over 300,000,000 people in the USA, many are not coin users. Today many use credit or debit cards. Many use checks too. Subtract all the places that now use tokens, passes, member ship cards and people that are to old or to young to use coins. Then subtract all the coinage stored at banks, stores, peoples houses, etc., you now need only coins minted in the millions. Therefore due to the above information I have figured out I have no idea.

I'm no expert, but using Conder101's (interesting; thanks) list, I would say the coin on that list most likely to be maybe slightly "rare," say, 100 years from now, would be the 2012 D quarter, because quarters actually go into use. A very high grade example could have some actual demand, if people are still collecting coins then, which I guess they will. I know the OP said "low mintage," and I'm using the word rare, but that's more interesting to me. Rare, for me, means more people want it than the supply will meet. I can't imagine that any of the NIFC coins will ever be rare (varieties excepted), and there's not much difference in a NIFC coin and what I'll call a NGTC coin, ("Not Going to Circulate"), which defines most of what is listed in the previous post. It's sad to me, because I don't think the next generation of collectors is going to be hooked by the search for obscure varieties that often require extensive research (and a 10x loupe) to understand and then find. I know, get off my lawn, but weren't those great days when we dug through a pile of nickels searching for a 1950 D, and lo and behold, eventually you would find it.

I'm still looking to get from circulation a 2003-D Arkansas quarter, a 2005-D WV quarter, a 2006-D Nebraska and for 2007 all D's Montana, Idaho & Wyoming. It took a long time but I finally got the Mississippi and Tenessee D's.

KK

You'll eventually find them as they're all pretty common. Many of the coins from 2009 through 2012 are tough due to the low mintages relative to other dates. It took me forever and a day to find a 2009-P Northern Mariana Islands coin to complete my set. Ironically, the second one I found was via a Coinstar reject bin.

As for modern dates, as mentioned before, the 2009 Nickels and Dimes from both mints can be considered scarce dates due to the mintages relative to other years and because much of the Philadelphia mintage of both denominations went to Puerto Rico. Most people who coin roll hunt find the 2009-P nickels very rarely - about 1 in every 14,000 coins for me here in Southern California. I have no trouble selling a nice circulated roll of 2009-D nickels for $20+shipping on ebay these days.

Other coins are tough to find for many. All of the S-mint modern Lincolns from 1968-1974 are fairly tough for East coasters. The P-mint 1969 and 1971 Dimes can be hard to find for people out here on the West coast as is the P-mint 1971 Nickel. A lot of the difficulty in finding modern issues has to do with location. Today, I finally found my first 2018 P-mint Lincoln. I know they're not scarce but that tells you a lot about distribution patterns and how little coins circulate outside their local area.