The United States Mint has released its monthly Circulating Coin Product Report, reflecting the production figures for May 2021. For the month, the Mint products 1.473 billion coins for circulation, a slight increase over the 1.320 billion that were produced in April. The production increase is the second consecutive month where the Mint has increased production of the nation’s coinage.
As expected and unsurprising, the Lincoln Cent was the highest production coin for the Mint in May 2021. For the month, the Mint produced 818 million Cents for circulation with minting nearly split evenly between the Denver and Philadelphia facilities. As readers likely know, those two sites are were circulating coins are produced for the United States. In Denver, 418 million Cents were produced while the remaining 400 million were pressed in Philadelphia. The production figures are a significant increase over April 2021 where 598.4 million Cents were produced. It is by far the highest percentage increase of any of the circulating coin produced month-over-month. For the year, the United States Mint has produced some 2.9412 billion Cents for circulation
A total of 167.76 million Jefferson Nickel coins were produced in the month of May. Of that total, 82.08 million were manufactured in Denver with the remaining 85.68 million made in Philadelphia. Like the Lincoln Cent, the Jefferson Nickel also enjoyed an increase of production, up from the 119.28 million that were produced in April. For 2021, there have been 739.98 million Nickels produced for circulation. Turning to the Roosevelt Dime, production dropped when compared to the April 2021 report. In May, the Mint produced 170.5 million Dimes at the Denver facility and 126 million in Philadelphia, for a total production of 296.5 million. That is a slight drop from the 306.5 million produced in April. For 2021, the Mint has now produced 1.367 billion Roosevelt Dimes for circulation.
The Washington Quarter also saw a drop of nearly one hundred million coins in its production total for May. A total of 189.6 million were produced in the month, a drop from the 288 million produced in May. Breaking the total down further, 108.4 million Quarters were made in Denver with the remaining 81.2 million pressed in Philadelphia. For the year, the Mint has now produced 947.6 million Quarters for circulation. Note that this production figure is for all Quarters regardless of their Reverse design. Remember that the Mint has produced two Reverse designs for the Quarter in 2021: The Tuskegee Airmen and the Washington Crossing the Delaware Reverses.
Rounding out production for May was the Kennedy Half Dollar. A total of 1.2 million were produced in the month, 900,000 in Denver and the remaining 300,000 in Philadelphia. For the year, the Mint has now produced 12.8 million Half Dollars. As readers know, the Half Dollar is not released to circulation but is produced for collectors. However, since it is a coin that could re-enter circulation, it is listed on the monthly Circulating Coin Production Report.
For the month of May, the Mint produced a total of 1,473,060,000 coins for circulation. That puts the Mint’s total production for 2021 at 6.0111 billion coins. That puts the Mint on pace to be just slightly over the 14.774 billion coins produced in 2020.
The United States Mint production report is updated monthly and is available to the public at this link on the Mint’s site.