the san francisco mint stopped making circulating coins in 1937.
the san francisco mint stopped making circulating coins in 1937.
when did the san francisco mint stop making circulating coins?
1937
the new mint was opened in 1937. beginning in 1955, circulating coinage from san francisco was suspended for 13 years. in 1968, it took over most proof coinage production from the philadelphia mint, but continued striking a supplemental circulating coinage from 1968 through 1974. from 1975 to 2012, the san francisco mint has been used only for proof coinage, with the exception of the susan b. anthony dollar from 1979–81 and a portion of the mintage of cents in the early 1980s. the dollars bear a mintmark of an "s", but the cents are otherwise indistinguishable from those minted at philadelphia (which bear no mintmarks, unlike those years' proof cents from san francisco and circulation cents from denver). in 2012, the san francisco mint started to mint circulation strike quarters in the america the beautiful quarter series, marked with an "s" mintmark and only issued for collectors.
san francisco mint
the current mint marks on united states coinage are p, d, s, and w for the 4 currently operating us mints. the letter p is used for the philadelphia mint, d for the denver mint, s for the san francisco mint, and w for the west point mint. over time there have been 9 official united states mints. the first us mint was in philadelphia which began coin production with large cents and the half cents of pure copper in early 1793. other us mints, prior to the twentieth century, were considered "branch mints". united states mint marks were originally used to distinguish coins not made in philadelphia. the 8 mint marks used to distinguish coins not minted in philadelphia (in the chronological order of their first coinage) are: d for the dahlonega mint (production of coins started on february 12, 1838), c for the charlotte mint (march 27, 1838), o for the new orleans mint (may 8, 1838), s for the san francisco mint (april 3, 1854), cc for the carson city mint (february 11, 1870), d again (dahlonega had closed in 1861 never to reopen) now for the denver mint (march 12, 1906), m for manila mint (july 15, 1920) (where an official us mint began with the coinage of a one centavo coin on july 15, 1920) and lastly a w for the west point mint the west point mint began coin production on july 29, 1974 to ease the shortage of quarters and other minor coinage and bore no mint mark. thus west point coins could not be distinguished from those made at the philadelphia mint. the west point mint mark, "w", was first used on the $10 gold coins commemorating the 1984 olympic games in los angeles. most philadelphia mint coins from earlier than 1980 were unmarked with the notable exception being wartime nickels (1942-1945). the p mint mark was first used on the susan b. anthony dollars starting 1979. from 1980 until 2017, the lincoln cent was the only coin that did not always have a mint mark, using a "d" when struck in denver but lacking a "p" when ostensibly struck at the philadelphia mint. this practice allowed the additional minting of coins at the san francisco mint ("s") and west point mint ("w") without the use of their respective mint marks to address circulating coinage needs without the concern of creating scarce varieties that would be plucked from circulation by collectors. in the single year of 2017 the philadelphia "p" was added to the lincoln cent to celebrate 225 years of philadelphia mint service. generally 21st century coins with an "s" or "w" coins do not circulate, being mostly produced as bullion, commemorative, proof coinage or other "collector coinage" sold by the us mint to either authorized bullion wholesalers or directly to collectors.
mint mark