The United States Mint has updated its monthly production report for March 2020, showing that less than 900 million coins were minted in the month. In total, 892,600,000 million coins were produced in March, a drop of 18.4% from the February total production of 1.094 billion coins. For 2020 so far, 3,214,980,000 coins have been produced in Denver and Philadelphia.
The drop in production is not entirely surprising. Like many businesses around the world, the United States Mint has had to cutback on staff and production in the wake of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. Indeed, Mint Director Ryder indicated last month that production schedules were going to be impacted and some numismatic products have already had their schedules altered. While 900 million coins is still a hefty number, usually the Mint produces over 1 billion coins in the first three months of each year.
Diving into the details, 508.8 million Lincoln Cent were minted in March, 302.4 million of them in Denver while the remaining 206.4 million were pressed in Philadelphia. That brings the total for 2020 to 1.7852 billion Cents produced for the year. The March total is nearly 100 million coins less than that produced in February.
The Jefferson Nickel also saw a drop in production, down to 80.16 million in March compared to 91.2 million in February. The Denver Mint made 46.32 million of the 5-cent pieces while 33.84 million were minted in Philadelphia. That brings the total for 2020 to 298.08 million Nickels produced
The Roosevelt Dime and Washington Quarter followed the same trend of fewer coins being produced in March. A total of 127.5 million Dimes were produced while 191 million Quarters were made in the month. The Denver Mint produced 68 million Dimes for the month along with 107.6 million Washington Quarters. In Philadelphia, 59.5 million Dimes were made along with 83.4 million Quarters.
Finally, in March, there were no Kennedy Half Dollar, Native American Dollar, or Presidential Dollar coins produced by either of the Mint’s primary facilities.
While we are still a month away from the April production report, it is expected that production could drop even further with Mint staffing being curtailed by the pandemic.
The United States Mint production report is updated monthly and is available to the public at this link on the Mint’s site.