However, I'm still waiting on some 2009-dated coins...in 2011. I don't take this as a bad thing. I'm glad that I'm not finished yet. It makes roll-searching fun. I think collectors have forgotten this joy.
When reading on various websites, you get a lot of entitled-sounding comments about collectors angry that their bank isn't providing them with new coins (not their job assholes: their job is to provide the denominations, not specifically-dated ones). Some would even blame the mint for not making them available to the public like that's their job (not their job either: their job is to provide coins as needed for commerce. No demand, no production. It is that simple). There was also considerable uproar that no 2009-dated proof Silver Eagles were made when again, that's not why those silver "dollars" were authorized back in 1986. I don't collect them, but I think the "missing proof" adds character to the set much like coins in previous years might not get produced by every mint every year. It'll also add a natural dividing line to the set as it inevitably grows from 2010 onward. I'd hate to see today's collectors back then. The fact that this "outrage" succeeding in getting the law amended to guarantee proofs for collectors really pissed me off. We cherish the rare coins of yesteryear (e.g. 1916 Standing Liberty quarter: 52,000 made...worth thousands of dollars if you have one in any condition). I can only imagine today's collectors would be outraged that so few had been made instead of being eager to acquire one based on the way they were annoyed that the various Lincoln Bicentennial Cents were only reaching selected areas in the country. I hate modern collectors: a bunch of entitled crybabies. Look at silver coin production in the 1880s when a flood of silver coins returned to the country after the paper dollar and gold dollar achieved parity in 1878, almost nineteen years after the Civil War started, a war whose cost not only upset the balance but whose uncertain times were the cause of those coins being exported for safe-keeping in the first place. Dime production returned to normal fairly quickly but the mint only made nominal mintages for quarters and half dollars for a long time afterward (and by nominal, I mean a few thousand when production in the low millions beforehand was common). In fact half dollars didn't return to normal until 1891. Imagine today's Me!-Me!-Me! short-sighted collectors learning about that!
Anyways...
Previous years most of the coins and mintmarks could be found by June (the quarters being the only exception as the designs for each state were released at specific points throughout the year but I would still usually have both the Philadelphia and Denver versions within six months of release...sometimes sooner). I'm glad it hasn't become quickly boring.
My only holdouts are the 2009-D dime and the Denver quarters for Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas Islands. I've only recently gotten the Type II "rail splitter" and Type IV "presidency" Denver cents. 2009-dated cents, dimes, and quarters show up once-in-a-while but 2009 nickels are essentially absent. I wonder where they were released? They haven't yet made their way to me. I've seen exactly three 2009 nickels so far (four if you count the proof set I got for Christmas). I got a 2009-P and 2009-D nickel from customers and I found another 2009-P nickel on the floor while cleaning. I have yet to see one turn up in a nickel roll. I know they'll never have value in anything less than MS-60, but I feel compelled to keep each one I will find. I wonder if I'll manage to get both the 2011-P&D dimes before I find a 2009-D one? That'd be cool. Yes, I have low expectations for my life :-)
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| Where are you?!! |
2009 had the lowest production for circulating coins in over forty years. There will be no rarities from this production although there might be some condition rarities if the mint didn't insist on releasing Mint Sets every year guaranteeing uncirculated coins for collectors. Look at the prices for 1982 and 1983 quarters where a combination of no Mint Sets and collector ennui led to few of those overproduced coins being saved. Bet you wish you had an uncirculated roll or two lying around! I don't like Mint Sets, they're like cheating and plus they get released too early which is why the 1999 Mint and Proof Sets don't have the Susan B. Anthony dollar in them which was unexpectedly produced that year for the first time since 1981. They should be released the year after to cover for such possibilities. I'll admit I have a soft spot for the 1999 SBA dollar: it just may be the only mini-dollar ever wanted by commerce.
It's also amazing that the mint could not produce fewer than a billion cents per mint despite this being one of the worst years for coin production since the 1950s (1.1 Billion for Philadelphia and 1.2 Billion for Denver). But whatever, it does make searching for 2009-dated coins something that collectors both now and in the future will enjoy. It'll be that likely hole in their Whitman folders which they will be ecstatic to fill. I eagerly go through any roll I open hoping to find one of the 2009 coins I need to fill in the holes in my Whitman board although I hate that I attach joy to finding a coin whose date coincides with the same year my father died...
ADDENDUM: My 2011 virginity was taken by the Lincoln Cent on February 24, 2011 which is earlier than has been usual for the past few years leading me to suspect that our area had received a shipment of new cents. My suspicions were confirmed today on the 28th when I received two rolls of 2011 cents at work. The coin wrapping machines must handle them roughly as all of them have scratches on the high points of the design.
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