2011-D Vicksburg

The 2011-D Vicksburg came in at 21,400,000 pieces, a striking drop from the 30-million-range Denver totals posted earlier in 2011 and one of the two lowest Denver figures of the entire 2010-2011 ATB period. The mintage break suggests a mid-year production-shift reduction at Denver, likely tied to softer Federal Reserve order projections for the second half of 2011. Thomas Cleveland's reverse, the USS Cairo on the Yazoo River, remained identical to Philadelphia's striking; the D mintmark on the obverse identifies the Denver issue. The 9.4-million-piece gap between the Philadelphia and Denver mintages stands as one of the larger 2011 P-D spreads in the series.

Strike characteristics on the Denver issue track the same grading-sensitive areas as Philadelphia. The Cairo's gun-port detail and the river-water texture in the foreground are where MS66 separates from MS67 in third-party grading, and the design's dense small-detail load makes late-die-state examples noticeably softer than early-state pieces. The clad composition is the standard 75% copper-nickel outer cladding over a pure copper core (5.67 grams total, 24.26 mm diameter). Authentication concerns are negligible for circulation-strike modern clad coinage, and the high-grade slabbed market runs through PCGS and NGC (the two leading third-party grading services) for verified MS67 and MS68 specimens.

The lower 2011-D Vicksburg mintage has translated into modest price premiums at higher grades. At MS67, the issue sits roughly even with the rest of the 2011 D-mint issues; at MS68 and above, the thinner production has produced a thinner top-pop population, which carries a small but real premium. Set builders chasing the complete 56-design ATB run in MS67 typically acquire the issue without resistance, though high-grade chasers building a registry top set should expect modestly higher acquisition costs at the population-scarcity tier. For the broader story of the ATB program, the 2008 authorizing legislation, and the series' design arc, see the Washington ATB series history.