Despite the lack of demand, the U.S. Mint has produced approximately 2 billion of the golden-colored $1 coins, with production continuing at about 500 million coins per year. This includes the four different $1 coins released each year featuring former presidents, plus one more annual design for the separate Native American $1 Coin Program.

As of May 31, the Federal Reserve Banks had nearly 1 billion $1 coins stockpiled in their inventory. The amount continues to grow with each $1 coin released and is expected to reach 2 billion by the end of the program.

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Last year, the Mint distributed $121 million of the $1 coins through the direct-ship program. Unfortunately, a potentially significant portion of this amount may have been related to artificial demand created by people taking advantage of the program. Many people purchased the coins at face value with their credit cards, earning valuable rewards points, and then deposited the coins at their local bank, recovering the full cost. (The Mint has since worked to curb such abuses.) Once deposited, many of these $1 coins were probably returned to the reserve banks, since financial institutions would have little need to keep them on hand.