Frozen Dates

[africancoins]

Frozen Dates

The Maria Theresa Thaler with date 1780 is a coin many of us have come across and most will re-call the "1780" on these coins as being a "frozen date". Large numbers of these coins were made for very many years after 1780. Maria Theresa who is depicted on the coins died in 1780 but demand for these coins, for trade in a number of nations led to the further (and prolonged) production of these coins with this date, by various mints. Obviously, there is a lot more to the history of this coin type, but that does not concern me here.
 
When I was a child, I was not aware of the term "frozen date" but I remember reading in a catalogue of British coins about how large numbers of some of the coins were made with the date 1967 after the year 1967. So, these were frozen dates. A check of that same book tells me that the main example of this, amongst the pre-decimal types, was the 1 Penny. Huge numbers of 1 Penny 1967 coins were made in each of 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970. Under normal circumstances, the further production in 1968 to 1970 would have been expected to include the relevant one of those dates below the Britannia design, but the date was "frozen" at 1967. This avoided an overlap of the dates on pre-decimal coins and the dates on decimal coins. You may re-call that many 5 New Pence and 10 New Pence were made with dates 1968, 1969 and 1970; many 50 New Pence coins were made with dates 1969 and 1970. At decimalisation, the out-going coins were those dated 1967 and before. That was a simple message for the public, in a decimalisation process that had to be kept as simple as possible, in order to win the public's acceptance. So those dates had been frozen for good reason.
 
So that is two examples of frozen dates. Thinking of other world coins, there are all sorts of reasons why coins of a certain date might be minted not only in that year indicated but also with that same date, well beyond the point at which the public might have expected the date to be changed.
 
Amongst the many such situations that we may re-call, it can sometimes be difficult to determine if the situation involves frozen dates.
 
When the issuer of the coins gets around to ordering further quantities of coins of the same type(s) they have ordered previously, they will often want the dating to be of the next year and for the coins to be eventually issued to use no sooner than the start of that year. Sometimes, for whatever reason, for that further order, the issuer may request that the dates remain unchanged, these count as being frozen date coins. The Birmingham Mint made Nigeria 1 Penny coins dated 1959 in all years 1959 to 1965, millions of pieces during each of those years. (Source: "A Numismatic History of the Birmingham Mint" by James O. Sweeny, 1980). Another example is that some of the Bronze coin types from Ethiopia with Ethiopian Era dating 1936, were struck for a few decades. Evidently neither of these two issuers saw a need for a change of the date, those types are each only know with one date.
 
On other occasions, the coins of a certain date might get made in a number of batches over a period running over two or more years, all as one order. A possible reason for this being a change in the rate that the customer is needing to issue the coins to their public. Or again there could be a lack of concern about dates. Another frozen date example from "A Numismatic History of the Birmingham Mint" is the Egyptian 1 Millieme with date AH1335/1917 (and "H" mintmark). These are detailed as having been minted in each of the years 1917 to 1921, millions per year. Exact figures are included for the mintages in each year for those 1 Millieme coins, as are similar details not only for other Egyptian coins of that series but also for one of two other Egyptian series from around that era, this includes other frozen date coins.
 
The mint and their customer will make a lot of plans for an order of coinage. This includes things about the dating, usually including the exact year to appear on the coins in the initial supply of several coin types. The order is placed on the mint by the customer. The mint makes the coins and sends them to the customer/country, usually to a schedule. The customer will store the coins safely until they need to issue them into circulation. Often many of the coins will be issued straight away, especially in the case of a re-coinage. Months later the issuer of the coins could still have a great quantity of the coins in storage, possibly more than had been planned. The delays that can occur can result with one or more coins types with a certain date being issued over a prolonged period. Without some sort of "inside information" it can be difficult to tell whether the mint kept mint the same date for a few years or if the issuer (e.g. a central bank) was just taking a long time to slowly issue the coins from a large delivery.
 
But remember some situations are not frozen dates. The UK 2 Pound coins dated 1997 were only released for real use in June 1998. This was a delay to the release of those coins. Even if it had been that all had been struck in May 1998, the term "frozen date" would, it seems, still be incorrect here. In many Eurozone countries, the Euro series coins released in 2002 were all dated 2002 and due to the huge mintages involved, many had been made in the few years before 2002. I do not think these get referred to as being frozen dates.
 
Another frozen date example: - the Solomon Islands 10 Cents with date "2012", would rather seem to be a frozen date, as Numista states the following about it: - "Of the total mintage, 23,985,000 were minted in 2012 and 700,000 were minted in 2017."
 
One more delayed minting/issue: - the Costa Rica 25, 50 and 100 Colones showing date 2007 would rather seem to have had their mintage delayed, Numista states the following about each of those: - "Minted in 2010". Something is wrong there though; I got my example of each of these three 2007 dated coins in June 2009.
 
There are a number of other examples. It would seem that frozen dates and delayed issues are perhaps more often encountered with coinages from issuers who seldom issue coins with consecutive dates and who usually have their coins made by mints in other countries.
 
Thanks Mr Paul Baker

[FosseWay]

When I was a child, I was not aware of the term "frozen date" but I remember reading in a catalogue of British coins about how large numbers of some of the coins were made with the date 1967 after the year 1967. So, these were frozen dates. A check of that same book tells me that the main example of this, amongst the pre-decimal types, was the 1 Penny. Huge numbers of 1 Penny 1967 coins were made in each of 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970. Under normal circumstances, the further production in 1968 to 1970 would have been expected to include the relevant one of those dates below the Britannia design, but the date was "frozen" at 1967. This avoided an overlap of the dates on pre-decimal coins and the dates on decimal coins. You may re-call that many 5 New Pence and 10 New Pence were made with dates 1968, 1969 and 1970; many 50 New Pence coins were made with dates 1969 and 1970. At decimalisation, the out-going coins were those dated 1967 and before. That was a simple message for the public, in a decimalisation process that had to be kept as simple as possible, in order to win the public's acceptance. So those dates had been frozen for good reason.

I read something similar as a child, also not having come across the term "frozen date" before. But the source I read said that this was "to avoid hoarding"; I've never understood why the public would have been more likely to hoard predecimal coins dated 1968-70 if they'd been available, than those dated 1967 but are still nice and shiny. Your explanation is much more convincing!

Another example of frozen dates "to prevent hoarding" is the first issue of coins by West Germany bearing the legend Bundesrepublik Deutschland. These were minted with the date 1950 for ages - the next date for the Pfennig values is 1966. Again, I read somewhere that the reason was "hoarding" here as well, but still don't understand the significance, or indeed why in general it was decided not to mint coins with the intervening dates.

Some countries seem to actively legislate against frozen dates, which is seen most clearly in the euro coinages of the original members of the eurozone. All of them produced coins some time in advance of their going into circulation in 2002. Some (like Germany and Italy) simply used 2002 as a frozen date for all euro coins produced up to and including 2002. Others, like France, Belgium and the Netherlands, produced coins dated 1999, 2000 and 2001. I've always understood that the reason is a legislative requirement that coins minted during a given calendar year must bear that year's date.

[Figleaf]

Two more examples of frozen dates. Being unable to get dies for new coins ready in time was the reason in a number of South American countries at the dismantling of the Spanish colonial empire. In fact, during the Spanish empire, all colonial dies were supposed to be made in Spain. When there was a succession, receiving new dies took so long that colonial mints just used a die for the dead king, changed it a bit and added the name of the new king - official portraits and busts of the new king also had to come from Spain and that could take years. During that time, the bust of the old king was removed and its plinth stood waiting for the new bust. People considered the empty plinth an apt symbol for the inefficiency of the colonial masters, so they called the main square of their town Zocalo (plinth), whatever its official name.

A similar example is that after the sudden abdication of queen Wilhelmina, dies weren't ready until 1950, so the Wilhelmina series was struck with frozen date in 1948, 1949 and 1950.

Peter

[FosseWay]

A similar example is that after the sudden abdication of queen Wilhelmina, dies weren't ready until 1950, so the Wilhelmina series was struck with frozen date in 1948, 1949 and 1950.

Something similar happened in Sweden after the death of Gustaf VI Adolf in 1973. The current king's first series of coins wasn't issued until 1976, and the previous series was struck with the frozen date 1973 until then.

Not so much "frozen date" as "frozen portrait" - over several centuries it has been standard in the UK, when a monarch dies, to continue to produce coins in their name for the rest of the year in which they died, even when the death occurs very early in the year (as it did with Victoria, George V and George VI, among others). This helps to explain why there were no coins issued for circulation in Edward VIII's name - the dies that were prepared were for coins dated 1937.

Off the top of my head, I can only think of two examples where circulation coins of two UK monarchs share a date. One is the half-crown of George IV, struck with the date 1820 alongside the last issue of George III. The other is the "memorial" 50 pence struck in 2022 for Charles III alongside Elizabeth II's issues. No doubt there are others, but it's very much the exception.

[<k>]

Here our forum member Big_M refers to the 1994-dated circulation coins of Cape Verde:

They are probably re-minted with date unchanged. I suspect the 'birds' series was re-minted in 2009, as the central bank issued a coin set which they refer to as 2009 but in fact it contains the 1994 birds series in uncirculated condition (100 escudos with brass ring). The packaging is a black leather case used in the UK proof sets of that period.

The coins do circulate, info from a recent visit by a friend.

The frozen dates in this case mean that it can be difficult to know whether out-of-the-way countries still issue their own coins or whether they now use only banknotes.

[stef]

One more delayed minting/issue: - the Costa Rica 25, 50 and 100 Colones showing date 2007 would rather seem to have had their mintage delayed, Numista states the following about each of those: - "Minted in 2010". Something is wrong there though; I got my example of each of these three 2007 dated coins in June 2009.

This information probably comes from the site of the former Mint of Costa Rica:

Monedas

Durante el 2010, Mint of Costa Rica acuñó monedas de 25, 50 y 100 colones para el Banco Central de Costa Rica, con fecha 2007, en acero revestido con bronce.

The mint was officialy opened in March 2010. Perhaps part of the coins were minted before that.

[<k>]

When the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973, a special circulating commemorative 50 pence coin was issued to honour the occasion. This was done on the orders of UK prime minister Edward Heath, who was very proud of his achievement of taking the UK into the EEC.

Though the coin was dated 1973, it actually was minted right through to May 1975. No regular Britannia 50 pence coins were minted for circulation during that time. As a result, the EEC commemorative was very commonly found in circulation.
See:  The "Illegal" 50p and the Death of "NEW PENCE".

[Offa]

Jamaica issued banknotes with George VI portrait until 1960. A frozen portrait

[FosseWay]

When the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973, a special circulating commemorative 50 pence coin was issued to honour the occasion. This was done on the orders of UK prime minister Edward Heath, who was very proud of his achievement of taking the UK into the EEC.

Though the coin was dated 1973, it actually was minted right through to May 1975. No regular Britannia 50 pence coins were minted for circulation during that time. As a result, the EEC commemorative was very commonly found in circulation.
See:  The "Illegal" 50p and the Death of "NEW PENCE".

This one is interesting, because alongside the frozen date circulation issue you mention, there was a 1974 Britannia 50 pence issued in sets only.

This generally isn't the case with the other examples upthread - there are no Dutch sets dated 1949 (AFAIK) or Swedish dated 1974/75, or UK predecimal sets from 1968 and 1969. The other UK exception is the 1970 proof set.

[<k>]

This one is interesting, because alongside the frozen date circulation issue you mention, there was a 1974 Britannia 50 pence issued in sets only.

That's true, hence my phrasing: "No regular Britannia 50 pence coins were minted for circulation during that time."

[Big_M]

Most recent case of frozen dates: additional batches of Tonga 2018-dated 10 seniti and 2015-dated  20 and 50 seniti were minted by RAM in 2022-2023

[andyg]

The Uruguay 10 Pesos dated 2000 was first struck 2004, then again in 2007.  But the 2007 (2000) dated coins contain a star to distinguish them from the 2004 (2000) dated coins.