These are some of the most unique and interesting coins produced in the modern era. They consist of an ongoing or serial subject, which are released for general circulation. A good example is the 1999-2008 Statehood quarter-dollar program of the United States. Canada had a similar program series commemorating the new Millennium, which released one new design into circulation per month in 1999 and 2000.
Unlike precious medal commemoratives, these are base metals and are produced by the millions. In some instances, a portion of the circulation commemorative run is produced in specialized collector folders. There are cases when a standard issue of the denomination is released along side the commemorative, as in the 1993-1999 Spanish 5 Peseta production run. Circulation commemoratives can be released annually- one design in a single year, or perennially- more than one design in a single year.
There are other criteria under which circulation commemoratives are issued. A particular denomination is usually chosen for a particular series of commemorative issues, such as the British 50 pence series released in 2012 to celebrate the London 2012 Olympics. In the case of Spain, however, the lowest four denominations, 5, 10, 25 and 50 Peseta coins were issued with circulation commemorative runs. In other cases such as Germany, only the 2 Mark denomination was released with a commemorative design.
All of these production runs are usually issued in very large quantities- generally 1 million or more per design is considered a quantity suitable for circulation. Instances where a fair amount of deviation exists between issues in a single series can lead to a higher demand for the lower produced designs. This can lead to hoarding one design over another when it is encountered in general circulation. It is the same principle as Gresham’s law, only mintage figures determines demand instead of debased medal content. An example of this is the 2003-2004 Statehood series production of US quarter dollars. The ten designs released during this period have the lowest mintage figures of the entire 10-year lifespan of the entire program. As a result, they command higher prices in the secondary market, even though several hundred million specimens exist (from both mint facilities).
Collector and general public interest in a commemorative program can sometimes dictate the future of the program, even before it is finished. The United States began the Presidential $1 program in 2007, which saw the release of four designs per year, each with a different US President as the subject. Because the US produced hundreds of millions of these coins, interest diminished beyond the initial year. In 2011, the US Mint decided to drastically reduce the number of Presidential Dollar coins it would produce for the remainder of the program. It is still unclear how this mintage reduction will impact the success of the program moving forward.
While it is nearly impossible to find a large monetary authority that does not produce circulation commemoratives today, this practice was almost unheard of only twenty years ago. One of the first circulation commemorative to be produced by a modern major monetary authority was in 1967, on the occasion of Canada’s 100th Anniversary of Confederation. All of the coin denominations in circulation at the time were released in normal quantities with a different design.
Some national banks and monetary authorities, it has been suggested, began issuing these circulation commemoratives in order to create value in the minted coinage, which does not otherwise exist since most currencies debased their coinage decades ago. Obviously the value of these circulation commemoratives do not come near the value of their precious medal counterparts, so this solution is questionable.
Whatever the reason these issues were started, collectors and enthusiasts love them! To that end, I’ve created several web pages (Italy, Russia and Spain so far) in an effort to catalog as many of these issues as I can: http://www.richwertzonline.com/coins/Circ_Comm_IT_200L.html
