The annual output of coins for circulation reached its lowest point in more than a decade in 2023, according to statistics from the United States Mint, which revealed that the rate of creating coins for circulation continued to fall for the third year in a row throughout the course of 2023.
This year, U.S. mints sent little more than 11.38 billion coins to Federal Reserve Banks for distribution to the public, a decrease of 16.4% from 13.62 billion coins produced in 2022. It was the lowest yearly total since 2012, when the United States Mint minted 9.34 billion coins.
Producing coins in response to societal demand is the United States Mint's principal objective. As part of the Mint's service to commercial banks and other financial institutions, the Federal Reserve Banks manufacture, market, and then distribute circulating coins to its coin terminals.
All of the coins that are used in commercial transactions in the United States are produced at minting facilities located in Philadelphia and Denver. The Philadelphia Mint produced 5,731,670,000 coins in 2023, while the Denver Mint produced 5,650,000,000 coins. Both mints were located in California.
More over 4.5 billion pennies were minted last year, the lowest since 2010. These cents comprise 39.7% of 2023 coin production. With 46.7% production, 2022 hit over 6.3 billion cents. The Mint struck 7.9 billion cents in 2021, 54.6% of circulation coinage. History reveals 2021 has the most usual cents-to-production ratio.
The U.S. Mint makes circulating dollars and half dollars in addition to pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. The U.S. Mint makes Native American $1 coins in circulation grade for coin collectors, but the Federal Reserve no longer orders them. Kennedy half dollars followed this approach until 2021.
It is common practice for the United States Mint to create the anticipated year demand for both denominations in January. But this is still only true for Native American dollars; mintages of Kennedy half increased in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and it happened numerous months in a row.
The Fed demanded millions of Kennedy half dollars in 2021 and 2022. For general circulation in 2023, 13.19 million were struck in November, 19.71 million in October, 6.3 million in September, 4.8 million in August, 3.2 million in July, 1.7 million in May, 2.5 million in April, 2.2 million in March, and 4.4 million in January.
In 2023, 58 million halves were merged, the largest since 1983's 66.6 million. Denver mints 27.8 million and Philadelphia 30.2 million. This is a big rise from 2022, when Denver produced 4.9 million coins and Philadelphia 4.8 million, totaling 9.7 million coins.
The Denver Mint and Philadelphia Mint shared 1.12 million 2023 Native American dollars, totaling 2.24 million coins, unchanged since January. The 2022 dollar shared 980,000 coins from each site, totaling 1.96 million.
The mintages for the 2023 Maria Tallchief quarter have finally been announced, according to statistics from the Mint. They are the most humble of the bunch thus far. The 2023 Edith Kanaka'Ole quarter, on the other hand, has the series' greatest mintages.