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Congressional Gold Medal

DrDarrylDrDarryl Posts: 585 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited September 28, 2020 7:23AM in U.S. Coin Forum

Misleading write-up by Coin World this morning: https://coinworld.com/news/us-coins/monday-morning-brief-for-sept-28-2020-this-will-kill-the-program

This article makes no mention that the medals with the pending price increase are bronze duplicates of a Congressional Gold Medal.

The bronze duplicate sale monies collected are use to cover the cost in the manufacturing the Congressional Gold Medal (including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses) and the cost of the gold in the medal.

The cost associated with a single Congressional Gold Medal is roughly $30,000. It would take 188 bronze duplicate medals sales (sold for $160 each) for the US Mint to be out of the red for a single Congressional Gold Medal. Expect low mintage hype to create an increase in demand at the $160 price point.

The dies will have been already created for the Congressional Gold and the cost of striking bronze duplicates will be minimal. It does not make sense that the program will be killed. I foresee that limited bronze duplicate striking will occur spurting an increase in demand.

Two Congressional Service Report (CRS) are available that provides great information on the process of creating and history of the Congressional Gold Medal.

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R45101?fbclid=IwAR3Srg47zBxD4dI3WlqCnBfhcg6kj2aO40zsnz620VjtOEiHxaW6FCkBG0g#:~:text=Congressional%20Gold%20Medals%3A%20Background%2C%20Legislative%20Process%2C%20and%20Issues,Gold%20Medals%20were%20issued%20by%20the%20Continental%20Congress

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30076.pdf?fbclid=IwAR25Cf-HffjnIF-ZllmHdm_nM9qhmmQPTz-gywNS1t-MAQn_aatdYCs9NNU

The US Mint may have been dipping in their Public Enterprise Fund (PEF) to keep the Congressional Gold Medal afloat. (Search PEF) in the 2019 US Mint annual report to understand how the US Mint is funded.

https://usmint.gov/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2019-Annual-Report.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3-huTcVAw574FQlBTREryxrf36mPmZwWUXp_7metxCq31UVORu436t7kA

Comments

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thanks for an interesting post/links. One medal program to fund another. Cheers, RickO

  • WilliamWilliam Posts: 43 ✭✭✭

    Dr. Darryl: Thanks for the comments. In preparing for our news coverage, we asked the Mint for specific details about the huge price increases. The sole response so far has been the generic comment that we published. We will continue to pressure the Mint for a detailed break-down regarding program costs and the rationale for the $160 price tag. Hopefully they will be more transparent than they have been so far.

    William T. Gibbs, Managing Editor, Coin World

  • JimnightJimnight Posts: 10,765 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Beautiful metal ... it makes me think of jaws.

  • GoldenEggGoldenEgg Posts: 1,919 ✭✭✭✭✭

    How can the cost of minting additional duplicates be “minimal”? The labor involved in minting and finishing these medals is likely much more than any other product.

    I believe profitability was also why the Secretary of the Treasury and the US Mint Director medals have not been minted for years, at the urging of the Secretary of the Treasury.

    There will be no “low-mintage hype” because the Mint has authority to continue minting this item, even many years from now, if they so choose. Additionally, there is little interest to begin with, at least for most of these medals, and there will not be increased demand, IMO.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 14,640 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yikes! The increase to $38 was a big disincentive for me. $160 will make them out of reach.

    The article did not say of the increase will apply to all older issues, but there are a few I will need to pick up before the end of the year.

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