RAM releases first Donation dollar

SYRACUSIAN

When an Aussie gets a Donation Dollar in change, they are encouraged to donate that dollar back to help those in need. It could be a struggling small business, a person down on their luck or a charity designed to help those in need; it’s your choice, just as it is your choice to act.

https://www.numismaticnews.net/article/ram-releases-donation-dollar

Sapyx

Alas, I do not think they have had the desired effect, because (as is normal for new circulating commemoratives), they are being flogged off on eBay for quadruple face value. The only one I have seen is one purchased from a coin club, which bought a bulk lot off eBay for $4 each.

As I have said elsewhere: if the Mint really wanted these coins to be given away and not kept by coin collectors, they should make them as unattractive to collectors and speculators as possible: sell them for face value from the Mint store with unlimited mintage, mint them by the millions over multiple years with no change in design, omit the date and any mintmarks from the coins, and don't colorize them.

SYRACUSIAN

But they are unattractive! To me at least, I might get used to the design later. And there are supposedly hundreds of thousands of them that the mint will be spitting, for now it’s a novelty, but later, with so many hundreds of thousands minted, I do not see the huge collector’s interest in them and certainly not at 400% their nominal value. It’s the hip new product for now, whatever ebayers can sell will sell. That they should increase the mintage to millions over years and omit the dates, that I agree.

And shouldn’t there be an online form for whoever wants to purchase some directl’y from the mint at nominal value? Where did these ebayers got them from to sell them at $4 on ebay per piece, if not from the mint itself?