Large mintage figures [solved]

Hello, everybody.

I note that at UK decimalisation, the 1971 1p mintage figure was, according to www.royalmint.com/currency/uk-currency/mintages/1-penny , 1,521,666,250.

The total UK population at the census of 25th April that year was 55,515,000. That amounts to approximately 27 decimal pennies struck for every man, woman and child in the United Kingdom.

The 1972 1p mintage figure: none at all (excluding proof and uncirculated sets).

The next time any British readers have a 1971 penny in their change, pause to contemplate its 1.5 billion brothers and sisters!

Does anyone know of other excessively large mintage figures?

With my regards,
Duncan Graham.

US penny 1982: 10.712.525.000

US penny 1982 : 10 billion coins

Quote: "Duncan Graham"​Hello, everybody.
​
​I note that at UK decimalisation, the 1971 1p mintage figure was, according to www.royalmint.com/currency/uk-currency/mintages/1-penny , 1,521,666,250.

​The large mintage was understandable in the 1971 UK penny case because the large pre-decimal pennies were being removed from circulation, so they basically had to replace the entire circulating supply of pennies. The USA ones are just ridiculous because they produce so many every year, and nobody seems to actually use them.

1959 D penny - 1,279,760,000 coins minted, compared to some of the other higher minted pennies. This mintage isn't that high now a days considering the mint strikes 2-4 billion pennies a year on average but these coins were struck over 50 years ago & with the difference in machines they had then that had to be a really high achievement for the mint. But back then pennies were actually worth something, for example you could get a box of 25 pieces of gum for a quarter so thats a penny per stick of gum. But now pennies are useless & there are billions of them in circulation already so why continue producing them? Especially when we are making 2-4 billion a year.

Thank you, BSmith and Frenchlover, for the enormous mintage figures for the US cent and for Frenchlover's link to an earlier series of posts. Thank you also for the interesting observations, neilithicman and jacemcdonald.

I note, just out of interest, that the total number of US pennies produced at both mints (Denver and Philadelphia) for 2018, the most recent full year, remained a very large 7,803,200,000 to the nearest 100,000.

www.usmint.gov/about/production-sales-figures/circulating-coins-production



With my regards,
Duncan Graham.

Japan, Malaysia and Thailand tend to have mintages near 1 billion.

I suspect China and India would have the highest mintages, if they would bother to report them.

Check out Italy in 2002!