Mint Bag Identifications Revealed

[WoodenJefferson]

 

There are those that believe that the code stamped on the bags was for orders placed by Federal Reserve Banks. Each order had its own number. Say if a Federal Reserve Bank ordered cents, dimes and quarters, each bag for that order would be marked with the same number.

 

Some believed that they are pallet numbers. That as orders where filled for a Federal Reserve Bank, each order was assigned a pallet number.

 

Well, here's what those codes really mean on the mint bags that are sent out to the Federal Reserves.

 

The first letter you will find stamped on a bag is either a P or D. Obviously this stands for the mint that produced the coins. P for Philadelphia and D for Denver. It also represents the mintmark that will be on the coins inside the bags.

 

Next will be two or three numbers. These numbers are nothing more than mint employee numbers. When a new employee hires on at the mint, they are assigned an employee number. This employee number is used for in house quality control. If the bags are not sewn properly, or there is mishandling, the managers immediately know which employee was responsible.

 

Next in the code will be three letters followed by 6 numbers. The three letters represent the month the coins where bagged. The next two numbers is representative of the day the coins where bagged and the last four numbers represent the year the coins where minted.

 

Take note the month and day date are when the coins are bagged and not the date the coins where minted. If the bagging operation is down for repairs, the production department still continues to produce coins. These coins may be taken to the holding room for storage until the bagging operation is put back on line

 

 

Say you find a mint bag with the code: D189APR191996 as the one pictured. The code means the bag was filled at the Denver Mint and the employee that filled the bag was employee number 189. The date the bag was filled was April 19th with 1996 coins.

 

There you have it, now you know.

 

Any other information, corrections to this post are welcome!

 

 

Note: These stamped on numbers and letters do not appear on say mini-bags of Statehood Quarters and the like. The Mints are sewing a ID tag on during the stitching process that reveals the contents.

[cladking]

Thanks for the info.

 

I had thought the date was the days they were produced and bnever did know what the three digit number was for.

[TomB]

That's pretty cool.

[LuvToCollect]

Thanks for the information.

[SkyMan]

Thank you for the info.