Circulating Mint Production Falls Off a Cliff in 2009! What gives?
I just stumbled upon this in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Mint_coin_production
And this can be confirmed on the U.S. Mint website:
http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/coin_production/index.c...
Compare 2009 to 2008 and 2007. 2009 production for cents, nickels, dimes and quarters is but a shadow of what they were making in '08 and '07. Nickels and Dimes are about 7% of 2007 figures and Cents and Quarters are about 20% or 2007 figures.
Halves on the other hand are relatively steady, and Dollars jumped massively at the beginning of the Presidential series, has tapered off by 50% in the last two years, but is still very high compared to later Sacajawea mintage figures. (current "Native American Dollars are at about 74 Million, 10 times the 2006 production)
I know there have been efforts to eliminate the penny. Personally I'd prefer to keep it and eliminate the $1 FRN. (or all FRN's but hey I can dream right?) Mintage figures since 2002 show an obvious run-down in production. The drop in the other coins is only recent to the last two years.
These figures suggest that the dollar is so devalued, they may be preparing for running down 1¢, 5¢, and 10¢ coins leaving us with only 50¢ and $1.
Maybe they minted so many in the past, their data shows they don't need to continue that level of production.
Whether this is planned or not really makes no difference.
These figures are evidence of an expected, or already in the preliminary stages, hyper-inflationary scenario. There is no need for small coinage in such a situation if the "dollar" (ahem "FRN") is losing value so fast. (it has lost 50% since just 2000) Maybe this is simply the result of ALREADY fast increasing prices that drives smaller coins out of use and so they stay in circulation longer and thus more don't need to be minted.
Anyone have any guesses? Clues? or even better FACTS that can explain this?
Is this one of those "canaries in the coal mine?"
*(B.E.P. figures show a reduction of FRNs as well for all but the $20 and $100 denominations. Figures are down across all denominations in the last few years, but overall B.E.P. figures are all over the map compared to the U.S. Mint. see:http://www.bep.treas.gov/uscurrency/annualproductionfigures.html)
For those of you who have not been reading, I invite you to check out John Galt's "blovel" (blog-novel) entitled: The Day the Dollar Died. He is on installment 12 which you can find here:
http://johngaltfla.com/blog3/2010/01/13/chapter-xii-keep-my-...
If you have not read it yet, check out the archive page. (which has the newest one at the top, scroll down for installment #1. I know, kinda backwards, but hey)
http://johngaltfla.com/blog3/category/the-day-the-dollar-die...
Galt's blog is excellent on financial matters, and his current fictional scenario of what a U.S. currency collapse might look like is starting to freak people out with some current events just happening to line up with his fictional time frame and order of events.
Similar production declines happened in the past
during prior economic downturns and "recessions", and during the (First) Great Depression of the 1930s, a number of different coins were not produced at all for a year or more at a time.
However, I do think that people need to realize just how idiotic and almost useless our current currency and coinage system really is. Neither has been updated since the aforementioned 1930s, when the dollar was worth 25 TIMES what it is worth today! A cent in 1932 was equal to a quarter-dollar today in purchasing value. Since I note that we did not have 1/25 cent coins in 1932, why do we need their equivalent today? Likewise, a one dollar bill was the smallest paper note printed in 1932, and is still being printed today, when it is worth only 4 1932 cents. This situation is absurd.
Realistically, if we had kept our circulating coins and bills up with inflation, the smallest coin we would be using today (and the smallest coin that we really need) would be the quarter, and the smallest bill we would have would be the $20, with $200, $500 and $1000 bills also being printed. But the federal government has NOT done this, I think, for two reasons:
1) By doing so, they would implicitly be acknowledging the full extent of the inflation that they have inflicted on us, which would give them a black eye, and
2) Making our circulating physical monetary system inefficient due to not updating it with inflation deters and discourages the use of cash, which they hate due to its anonimity. Remember, the government just LOVES people who use credit cards in lieu of cash, because not only does it feed their giant bankster friends due to the associated fees on every CC transaction, but it allows them to monitor and track every financial transaction thus made ---- and knowledge is power. Power over us.
Maybe they're trying to
Maybe they're trying to figure out a way to sucker us into accepting plastic pennies and wooden nickels...
...
Oh they already have people hooked on plastic, the wood however
may be a bit tougher to sell.
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duplicate comment.
Thanks for the link to the blovel,
it's a great creative read.
You very
welcome. His other series called "Prepetorials" was excellent also, though geared more towards various issues and the psychological preparation for them rather than a single specific scenario and time line of events.
You very
welcome.