Despite a dip in mintage from preceding years, cents dated 1884 are not rare or even scarce. Examples are readily available across most grades, and only at the very highest grades do these become rare.
A couple of factors may have contributed to this year's reduced coinage of cents, which was just over half that of 1883. Perhaps such high mintages in 1880-83 simply limited the need for additional cents. Another issue raised within the Mint Director's Report is that the quality of cent and nickel planchets being provided by its primary vendor declined around this time.
Mintage:
| Philadelphia |
| 23,257,800 |