I’m just the average coin collector, but I have noticed certain coins are tough to find although they are of no real value (above face value). For example, the Maine and Hawaii National Parks Quarters are conspicuously missing after routing through 400 rolls of quarters. (My wife and I have been storing pocket change for some time.) Why would this be? Also, “D” mint-marked coins from about 2014 onward have been impossible to find. Has the Denver Mint stop making them? Have I searched in vain? Last, a bonus question: Why did the Philly Mint bother to stamp a “P” on their 2017 penny when no other year before or after (at least, in relatively recent years) has a “P” mint mark?
Thanks for sharing these dark secrets of the US Mint!
Did you find any W mint marks? A small number of the 2019 quarters were minted in West Point for general circulation with this mint mark, although I haven’t seen any.
Per Philadelphia Mint Quietly Releases 2017-P Lincoln Cent: “According to Tom Jurkowsky, director of the United States Mint’s Office of Corporate Communications, the 2017-P Lincoln cent was minted in recognition of the Mint’s 225th anniversary on April 2.”
It could just be coincidence. I collect the National Parks quarters, and have never seen Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Mississippi (all 2011 or 2012), or Missouri; I also didn’t see a single New Mexico coin (2012) until 2019.
