Coins in Circulation

[DevilSolution]

Okay so quick brief, each year our family does a secret santa, usually we'll buy something gimmicky and something useful however after sorting my collection of spare change into relative piles i thought it'd be cool to give my secret santa a set of coins with the date of their birthday. (There's a few who obviously fall into shilling and threepenny bit, so they're excluded). Anyway i started sorting the coins into relative piles for people i might get, so the coins are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1.

 

Anyway as i was going through each coin in succession i soon found that some dates were particularly common and some particularly rare which got me thinking, why would a coin as old as 1971 be so common yet a coin from 1986 not appear once.

In a sample of 200 1p's i found atleast 10 dated exactly 1971, a few from 1975 and a few from 1978, then they are sporadic. Like i might find 3 from 1981 and 1 from 1982 and 0 from 1984 ... and 0 for 1986 etc as might be expected from a random sample. Except i also found over 5 dated 1999 and over 5 dated 2000 but not many from 1991-1998 (other than 1993).

 

It wasnt just the 1's, for each denomination there seemed to be a pattern of particularly common dates, for example 5p's there were plenty from 1990, 1991, 1992, 1998 but not 1 from before 1990. (although the sample size is alot smaller, around 100). It just seemed strange that with such a small sample size certain dates were so common, again i'd attribute random sample distribution to the outcome but for each denomination there seemed to be very common dates and some that i couldn't find at all.

 

Now in each denomination the newer dates 2010+ were by far the most common, but after that each denomination seemed to have marginal patterns (although i cant speak for the £1 and 50's as i didnt have many hehe). The silver coins were especially common from dates 2010+ which indicated the central bank perhaps regulates them more to stop counterfeiting or some of these were counterfeits, because for the 1's and 2's there were many more older coins and the ratio of difference was approx;

 

1s and 2's from 2010 - 2015 = 1/3 then 2000-2010 = 1/3 and 1971 - 1999 = 1/3 (which are fair ratio's given the dates)

 

5's, 10's and 20's from 2010 - 2015 = 2/3 then 2000 - 2010 = 3/12 and 1971 - 1999 = 1/12 (which seems heavy loaded)

 

So im wondering 2 things;

 

Firstly is their alot more counterfeit silver coinage hence the dating? or does the central bank regulate silvers more heavily?

 

Secondly why are there such common dates for particular coins? Do people horde coins from particular dates or does the central bank remove specificity dated coins? Or were there more coins printed in that particular year?

 

Sorry for such a long post about coins ( i dont actually collect they're just spare ), but it just strikes me as odd that there is just obvious patters in the dates.

 

Regards.

[hypervalent_iodine]

I have small insight into your second question. I noticed a similar thing with $2 coins here in Australia when I first started going to high school and had to catch the bus every morning. Almost every morning without fail, the $2 coin I had to pay the driver with was minted in 1988, which is the year I was born (and probably why I noticed the trend in the first place). I wondered why this was and discovered that 1988 was the first year the $2 coin was minted and in the initial run they made 160 or so million. In subsequent years, they didn't mint nearly so many and statistically speaking, I was more likely to get $2 coins from 1988 than from any other year. I don't see nearly as many now and I suppose this is because many have probably been taken out of circulation due to damage (these are called mutes), are lost, melted, taken overseas or are hiding in collections. There have also been a lot more of them minted in the last 10 years.

 

Your question about silver coins may not have anything to do with counterfeit or heavy regulation. People are less likely to stop and pick up dropped / lost silvers than they are gold coins, so the rate of attrition would likely be much higher. Over time, those losses would accumulate.

 

I'm sure your mint would have data on how many coins they make in a given year. Australia's mint certainly does.

[DevilSolution]

I suppose by the law of probability if your taking say 1/10 of old 1's out of circulation each year and printing 1/10 new 1's, There's always the chance a few coins get taken in higher proportion. Especially if the year they minted that coin they were only taking 1/20 out and printing 1/20 new?

 

I'll get a bigger sample and do the proper statistics, i need to get 1 of each coin for everyones birthday anyway, so i could always go to the bank and swap out coins until i have my 11 sets and by that time i imagine I'd have some pretty strong figures.

Edited November 19, 2015 by DevilSolution

[hypervalent_iodine]

Edit: I tried to find data on how many of each coin are made by year. Not so easy to find. I did however find out that the 1p coin was introduced in 1971. I imagine they made a lot in that first year and that may be why you see so many. The 5p in its current size was introduced in 1990, hence why you see none of them prior to that date. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_pound_sterling#Post_1982)

[DevilSolution]

Edit: I tried to find data on how many of each coin are made by year. Not so easy to find. I did however find out that the 1p coin was introduced in 1971. I imagine they made a lot in that first year and that may be why you see so many. The 5p in its current size was introduced in 1990, hence why you see none of them prior to that date. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_pound_sterling#Post_1982)

 

Ahh that does explain the 5p dates and the 1971 date, but the year 2000 they seemed to be pretty happy to mint as well. I guess there's logic somewhere, "its the millennium lets gets loads of shiny coins out and melt down the old rusty ones"...hehe

[hypervalent_iodine]

 

Ahh that does explain the 5p dates and the 1971 date, but the year 2000 they seemed to be pretty happy to mint as well. I guess there's logic somewhere, "its the millennium lets gets loads of shiny coins out and melt down the old rusty ones"...hehe

 

 

I found some annual reports from the Royal Mint. They indicated that there was an exceptionally high demand for 1p, 2p an 5p in 2000 and 2001 and subsequently, record rates of issue.

(http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/annual-report)

[DevilSolution]

Well i guess that sums that up then, i was hoping there would be more to it but it all makes sense :/

 

cheers for the clarification.

[hypervalent_iodine]

I also made some pretty graphs!

 

 

 

Helps make it a bit clearer.

 

Edit: I'm away from where I made the data tables, but the 2p data point on the second graph was entered incorrectly. It should be a little higher than it was in 2008/2009.

[moth]

The gambler in me is wondering if I could maybe win a free drink betting the barkeep there are no 2p coins from 09/10 in their cash register.?

[hypervalent_iodine]

The gambler in me is wondering if I could maybe win a free drink betting the barkeep there are no 2p coins from 09/10 in their cash register.?

 

1p would be a better bet.

[imatfaal]

Edit: I tried to find data on how many of each coin are made by year. Not so easy to find. I did however find out that the 1p coin was introduced in 1971. I imagine they made a lot in that first year and that may be why you see so many. The 5p in its current size was introduced in 1990, hence why you see none of them prior to that date. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coins_of_the_pound_sterling#Post_1982)

 

We changed our system of currency on 15th Feb 1971 (two weeks after I was born) moving from an amazingly arcane system to a decimal (new pence) system - so there was a huge influx of "new pence" coinage. We stayed being able to use old shillings as five new pence, old florins as 10 new pence in addition to similar sized new coins - but the copper coinage (1/2,1, 2 pence) was all new . Before that our coinage had changed little - all had the monarch of the day on - but other than that and the smaller coins dying out (the groat) there was little change; people my elder brothers' age remember having handfuls of change and none would be younger than 50 years and a lot of the pennies victorian.

 

Terry Pratchett has an excellent passage describing/eulogizing the old system - I will see if I can find it

[DrP]

I was going to say the same about the coins from 1971 (I was born then also ) - the introduction of new coinage in that year meant that they had to replace the whole coin system so they would have needed a lot more than subsequent years where they are just topping up or adding to the coins already in circulation rather than replacing them all.

[imatfaal]

 

 

 

“Two Farthings = One Ha'penny.

Two Ha'pennies = One Penny.

Three Pennies = A Thrupenny Bit.

Two Thrupences = A Sixpence.

Two Sixpences = One Shilling, or Bob.

Two Bob = A Florin.

One Florin and One Sixpence = Half a Crown.

Four Half Crowns = Ten Bob Note.

Two Ten Bob Notes = One Pound (or 240 pennies).

One Pound and One Shilling = One Guinea.

The British resisted decimalized currency for a long time because they thought it was too complicated.”

[John Cuthber]

One reason for the rarity of old coper coins (from before 1992) is that they are made of coper (as opposed to plated steel) and are worth more as scarp metal than their face value.