NNP

Quantity Struck.  Mintage; the number of like specimens struck and available to

be issued to the public. This number is important to collectors (to determine value determined by supply). But the quantity struck must be analyzed in many ways:  how does it differ from quantity issued and from quantity preserved, both will influence supply, as how many were melted before issuance, were any recalled, were any destroyed in any way. (Destruction ranges from shipwrecks to insurgency, political upheaval to speculation, like the attempted corner of the world's supply of silver in 1980 with vast melting.) Numismatists are at the mercy of mint officials to release quantity struck figures but they must analyze the figures themselves for more meaningful knowledge.

If you know the quantity struck and have an estimate of existing specimens you may determine the survival ratio  – quantity struck divided by the quantity that has survived. This is a more meaningful number than quantity struck. See mintage.

excerpted with permission from

An Encyclopedia of Coin and Medal Technology

For Artists, Makers, Collectors and Curators

COMPILED AND WRITTEN BY D. WAYNE JOHNSON

Roger W. Burdette, Editor