Variety mintages?

[admrose]

Is there any resource that lists the approximate number of each variety produced? I can imagine it wouldn't be too hard to speculate as each variety is unique to a certain die, and the Mint records how many cents each die strikes before replacement. Has anyone ever heard of such a thing?

[Maineman750]

Don't know of any...but that's all it would be..speculation. And the mint doesn't record specific dies to that extent.

[mustbebob]

The annual mint report does indicate how many coins were struck with each die. This is how they get their total numbers of coins struck. However, it does not match up a specific die with a specific variety. I have not followed the annual report for many, many years, but I assume this is still the case.

[Maineman750]

However, it does not match up a specific die with a specific variety.

And that's the extent I was refering to....now if we could get them to put a tiny id on each die that would show up on the coin...we would have something.

[mustbebob]

It sure would be Roger. Imagine having the very die that struck the 1955 DDO? Wow!!

[georoxx]

Related question... and I know this varies, but generally speaking (or just about as general as we can get), how many dies per year are used? (Per mint?) Is it in the hundreds? (I think this has been addressed before, but of that I'm not certain.)

Thanks.

-George

[mustbebob]

It is in the thousands now days. You can take the total mintage and divide it by 750,000 to a million to get a ball park figure for Lincoln cents.

[admrose]

It sure would be Roger. Imagine having the very die that struck the 1955 DDO? Wow!!

Probably doesn't exist anymore. Once they found the mistake they probably scrapped it. Shame too.

[georoxx]

I understand they grind every die down to nothing. If you're lucky, some design elements still appear, but for the most part, they are all destroyed regardless of whether or not they produced errors or varieties.

-George

[admrose]

I understand they grind every die down to nothing. If you're lucky, some design elements still appear, but for the most part, they are all destroyed regardless of whether or not they produced errors or varieties.

-George

They do sell a few as part of collectors set, usually with a cent they produced. I've seen them on eBay from time to time. Some even list how many coins were minted with it and the reason it was taken out of service.

[GrumpyEd]

Is there any resource that lists the approximate number of each variety produced?

In the CPG they sort of tried that by using the URS numbers but that represented "known examples" not how many were minted.
It does help in terms of knowing if there are thousands of something or a few, like that big 1958 DDO says URS-3 and it's probably close since I think only 2 exist. For others I think it's not realistic.
It's impossible to be accurate since more examples are found every day and nobody reports them except some in TPG slabs but even then some are cracked out and re-submitted so the numbers won't be correct.

The old CPG said the 1994 DDR was URS-3 (3-4 known) but I found more than that myself so that shows how easily things can change and how hard it would be to keep an updated accurate list.

Some things give a basic idea, look at URS numbers (older numbers in my examples) for some well known varieties:

55 DDO die-1 URS 15 (8001-16000)
55 DDO die-2 URS-7 (33-64)
72 DDO die-1 URS-16 (16001-32000)
83 DDR die-1 URS-14 (4001-8000)
95 DDO die-1 URS-20 (250001-500000)

Sure the numbers especially small ones are not accurate like there's more than 64 of the 55 DDO die-2 today. But you can tell some basics like there are not many 55 DDO die-2 but there are tons of 95 DDOs like 1/4 to 1/2 million.

[mustbebob]

Some good rationale there Ed. We have to remember that the URS numbers were when the book/article was printed. As you mentioned, things change, sometimes pretty quickly. I have seen someone's hoard completely change the URS numbers overnight. It can and will happen.

[admrose]

Some good rationale there Ed. We have to remember that the URS numbers were when the book/article was printed. As you mentioned, things change, sometimes pretty quickly. I have seen someone's hoard completely change the URS numbers overnight. It can and will happen.

True. Even when we know how many were minted, such as c. 24,000 for the '55 DDO # 1, that's just how many were minted. Nobody knows how many they caught before they left the Mint, though 10,000 isn't a bad estimate leaving about 14,000 out there. Of those there's no way to know how many have been destroyed, mutilated, lost, etc. I think NGC has a survival estimate for each coin but again that's just best guess math.

[Maineman750]

I'd say it is like the weather...everybody wants to know what it will be, and hearing or seeing a report gives them comfort...but in the end, it is what it is regardless of what anybody says.

[WaterSport]

Consider the more damaged the variety is with Die cracks, Cuds, etc. The more and bigger they (cracks and cuds) are, the less coins were made - because the die was failing.

WS