Phone Call From The Royal Canadian Mint This Afternoon

That's awesome you're doing this -- thanks very much. (But I suspect the letter won't be very informative.)

By the way, I seem to recall our friend malibu here on CCF telling me that on his 2009 visit to the Winnipeg mint, an employee indicated to him that there were no 2007-dated zinc cents produced for circulation. I believe this, but I also seem to recall an entire zinc 2007 mint-wrapped roll selling on E-Bay a while back.

Also, have you noticed the 2008 Annual Report is out? It shows zero zinc production for cents in all of 2008. Therefore, the guy selling the zinc 2008 either got it from a special set, or there was a small 2008-dated zinc run in 2009. Nothing else noteworthy in the 2008 report that I could see.

Man, I should write them a letter to see if they finally got their act together about the mens coloured hockey quarter.
Come on now, we all know that the raised 2 is the scarcer variety, and not the engraved as they have consistently been reporting since its release.

I'm afraid to post links on here, but you can get to the report by going to the mint website -> corporate information -> reports. I saved a pdf and can e-mail it to you if you have any trouble.

Also, regarding the 9.625 million figure for 2007 zinc, the mint report for 2007 states that quantity of zinc cents were made IN 2007. But many 2006-dated cents were also produced in 2007, according to the same report. So the Charlton made a dubious inference, IMO.

pennylover: I first noticed the 2008 report on Friday.

I posted a more detailed analysis of the 2007 mintages a couple weeks ago, and you responded seeming to get what I was saying.

I'm saying that yes, the report says 9.625 million zinc cents were produced in 2007. The same report says over 100 million 2006-dated cents were also produced in 2007. So how does Charlton know these figures don't partially or completely overlap?

A careful read of the RCM reports shows that zinc/steel is broken down by "production year" not "coin date". So it is incorrect for Charlton to assume what was produced in 2007 bears the 2007 date.

I speculate that nearly all of the 2007 CPZ run was dated 2006, consistent with the report, but not with Charlton.

Yeah I would also love to know where the 2006 P and logo mintage figures come from. I should write the Charlton and ask.

Maybe each year Cross writes a special request to the Mint (like our friend TheForce just has). The trouble is, he should stop publishing what they report to him until they get back some credibility - like hiring someone with numismatist knowledge in their PR department.

I don't blame the Charlton too much for not having the latest info. The mint makes the editor's job difficult with rather crude record-keeping. Mind you, we collectors probably make the mint's PR job a nightmare too! The mint has no obligation to report the detailed breakdown of date/variety/composition -- but you'd think it would be a trivial matter for them to do.

this is one of the best topics ever!

ding! there's the popcorn...

The moment of truth is now at hand. My letter from the RCM has arrived.

The text of the letter:

We are impressed by your observation of our one-cent coin. As you may have known, the one-cent coin is not used in the vending industry, and it does not need to carry electrical and magnetic signals like other Canadian coins. Therefore the coin design and specifications are made in a way that the material and manufacturing costs are the most effective and our number one consideration for the year when they are produced.