I figure the Post Office cleans up pretty well selling new edition “collectible” stamps to millions of amateur collectors.
Does the same hold true with the Mint? Do millions of people collecting these state quarters (and taking them out of circulation)financially help the the Mint? the Federal government? the economy? Anybody? Is the dollar value of them too low to make a measurable difference? Are they like those “Eat all you want, we’ll make more” chips?
The state quarters are unlikely to be worth anything more than 25¢ because there are so many in circulation. The Mint, however, makes available proof sets and such. Their value would be determined by the quantity produced, of course.
I think the OP is asking whether the Govmn’t is actually making money by handing out coins that, once they are in circulation, are taken out of circulation.
My guess is that it doesn’t really make a sizeable difference, especially not compared to all the pennies out there sitting in jars 
Or maybe not. Certainly there must be some reason for making the “collector” edition coins. Is it just a bread and circuses thing, distracting the masses from their humdrum lives with new shiny objects? It seems to me that the considerablle amount of money that went into designing and minting all those new quarters could have been better spent on… well, on just about anything.
I’m not talking about the market values of the quarters. I’m talking about the coin supply, and the profitability of manufacturing them. For instance, I have heard that pennies are relatively pricey to produce for thei face value, and one problem with keeping them in circulation are people’s enormous penny jars. Or, could increasing demand for quarters result in higher metal costs.
Things like that.
Ooh, iamthewalrus(:3=, our simultaneous posts have an eerie similarity.
You can rest assured your interpretation is correct.
But for the post office, collectable stamps represent accounts payable. Collectors are paying for a service that they never intend to use, meaning the PO makes out. The mint doesn’t make any money on money, once the coins go out to the banks, the mint is out of the equation.
According to the U.S. Mint it costs 4.29 cents (U.S. funds, obviously) to make a quarter which they sell to the Federal Reserve system and customers for 25 cents. They make 20.71 cents on every quarter sold and if it is then taken out of circulation they will never have to buy it back when it gets worn out for that 25 cents.
http://www.usmint.gov/faqs/circulating_coins/index.cfm?action=faq_circulating_coin#specifications
Productions cost for the all U.S. coins:
Golden Dollar 10.03 cents
Half Dollar 9.63 cents
Quarter 4.29 cents
Dime 1.88 cents
Nickel 3.13 cents
Penny .81
The US mint also has a variety of commemorative and bullion coins available for purchase to collectors. Their value is basically a function of condition and rarity. Condition of these coins is usually very high because they do not circulate. The commemoratives from the early 80s usually stink in price because high numbers were made. They make nice gifts for folks who have everything.
The mint makes quite a lot of money for the government and pays its own way. Swede Hollow has it right. The term is “seigniorage” and the difference between cost to manufacture and face value of all coins and bills goes right to the income line of the Fedgov.
The point of all the general circulation versions of the “commerative” US 25 cent pieces is to get more people interested in coin collecting. A percentage of them then moves theoretically into collecting the never-circulated “proof” coin sets, which are all gravy to the mint. I may be mistaken, but the mints in San Francisco CA and West Point NY are exclusively in the “proof” coin business. That is, there are mints exclusively dedicated to the mission of producing money that will never be circulated.
BTW, Proof coins are not regular coins pulled out of the bin at the mint and set aside, never to be circulated (these would be “Uncirculated” grade coins to a collector). The proofs are made differently from the very beginning; even the coin blanks are processed differently. There was a show on the Discovery Channel about this a while back.
Another point of the commerative US quarters is good PR, not only for the mint and the states who “get a quarter”, but also for the whole idea of the mint making coins in general. You all will remember various posts here at the SDMB about the dumb-ass “golden” US dollar, which was as dismal a failure as the Susan B. Anthony doller of the 70’s. And then there are opinions from time to time about doing away with the penny, the nickel, etc.