1985 and 1993 50¢ mintages

[JeffH]

RAM gives mintages for these two years as 1 million each.
Macca says 1985 1 million and 1993 982,800.
Renniks suggests 1985 1 million and 1993 2,217,000.

Regardless of the exact mintages, they are both hard to find years in circulation. However, in my noodling, I have found between four and five 1993 for every 1985. That puts the ratio well different than any of the sets of published figures.

Does anyone have any thought on what may be the correct figures?

[Basil]

Who knows,but i agree the 1985 seems to be much scarcer by a large margin so Rennik may be more correct.Mintage figures are always open to conjecture,i don't know why as all it takes is someone in Authority to read a meter that counts the number of down strikes of the mintage machines(or at least that what i was told).
There was a lot of conjecture around the time the Sydney Mint closed on the mintage figures of Pennies but over time a number is  accepted as being correct by the majority of 'experts' so the same will happen with the 50c coins you would think.

[Ozcoins]

I agree that 1993 is much more common than 1985.
Providing a little justification, would that 1985 coins are older and would have spent more time being lost/collected.
I don't think that would go even close to explaining the numbers we find though.
A while back I did some estimating about the rate that 1972 5 coins were removed from circulation based on the proportions I was finding them in.
Would be interesting to do something like a census to get counts of each of the years and then compare to the mintage figures.

[coxspau]

From all my 50c noodling, I have never come across any 1985 or 1993.

I'd be very interested in a State by State census. I wonder how much currency circulates but never actually leaves Tasmania.

There is no doubt that we are always well behind in finding current year issues. I think it was Nov14 until I came across my first 2014 in circulation.

[Fulvio]

Yes, '85 are harder to find.

But relating that to mintages? Tough call.

I've always thought that mintage figures are only a starting point to establish rough correlation between issues. There is no accounting for attrition, be it into collections, furnaces or the briny depths, nor is there an audit trail for distribution.

Eventually we get a rough feel, sure, but there really is no way of knowing how many of any particular coin exist, let alone are still available to be found.

[JeffH]

Probably Fulvio I did not phrase my question very well. I don't expect any definitive answer on mintages but wanted to get a feel for what is being found overall.
My noodling finds are almost certainly not enough to be statistically significant. But, add in what others have found and we get closer to a true picture of relative numbers of them in the pond.

[Ozcoins]

Yes, '85 are harder to find.

But relating that to mintages? Tough call.

I would have to disagree.
In fact it has been done before. ..
see this thread at CCF
http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=105452
I started that based on what I (and others) felt was incorrect rates of finding 1977 10c coins that were supposed to be fairly low mintage.
Nancy found older mintage figures which matched more closely with what we were finding.

[JeffH]

Amazing what information can sometimes appear, if the right question is asked.
I have amended my Maccas accordingly for the '77 10¢.

[mkonst]

I've found 1 of each 85 and 93 in my limited noodling.

[Pedro]

And here I was thinking I was just so lucky in finding so many 1977 10c pieces :-/. I hadn't noticed that CCF thread and it does make more sense now.

On the 50c side of things - 2 x 1985 and 5 x 1993. Small sample I know but it may suggest Renniks' numbers are closer to the mark.

Pedro

[JeffH]

With what I have found in recent times that makes a cumulative total of 5 x 1985 and 13 x 1993 found.
How about you Goldie? I suspect you have a record of numbers of these.

[Unicorn]

I'm around 6 x 85 and 8 x 93 so considering the 8 years extra for people to accumulate the 85s then perhaps the mint numbers are correct?

Yes, I'd be interested if Goldie has some stats and AJ too, he might have a tally.

McDuck, how many metres of each are at the bottom of the money bin vacuum sealed in coin bags?

[b_j_w_79]

I've kept some stats over the years, here we go!

1985 50c[/u]
2007 - 23
2008 - 8
2009 - 2
2010 - 7
2011 - 16
2012 - 18
2013 - 6
2014 - 6
2015 - 1
TOTAL - 87

1993 50c
2007 - 73
2008 - 18
2009 - 4
2010 - 12
2011 - 62
2012 - 50
2013 - 37
2014 - 52
2015 - 5
TOTAL - 313

[Goldseeker]

1985 50c pieces I have found only ONE.

1993 I wouldn't have a clue as I have not been looking for them.

Sorry I can't be of any more help.

[Unicorn]

That's some serious noodling bjw!!!! Thanks for sharing.
(I think the 93 year numbers might need an edit).