US Mint medal price increases are in effect
JBK
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The reported price increases for the various medals the mint sells were discussed in a thread or two over the past few months and they are now reflected on the mint's website.
I had hoped that it might only apply to new issues, or at least be limited to the bronze versions of Congressional gold medals, but the price increases were across the board.
3" bronze medals are now $160, the smaller versions are $20, and the silver presidential medals are the bargain at $65, which is presumably (?) the prior price.
In the last day or two of 2020 I dropped over $250 on some 3" medals and a few smaller ones. I could barely bring myself to spend that much on current medals, but I am glad I did. It is safe to say that with the new price structure I will never buy another medal directly from the mint.
I am saddened by the new pricing because I think it will largely destroy the bronze medal program.
Comments
The best way to stop this is to not buy them anymore.
Yes, I picked up 2 - 3" and 3 of the 1 5/16" medals of my favorite President. I am doing my part to make The US Mint "Great again",,,,,
silver presidential medals were $40 in late 2019 and maybe increased to $45 last year, so $65 is def an increase
Thx for the clarification. So the increase is significant, but thankfully not a multiple of the old price as with the bronze.
painful as I set myself on collecting all the presidential silvers - we'll see how much longer that lasts
Does this mean I should be able to sell all of my 3” Mint medals for $160 now too?!
Currently many of the 3” Presidential and Congressional Gold medals trade at the $5 - $10 level.
The 3" bronze at $40 were always a stretch for me and I am not sure I actually ever bought any at that price until I slid in under the bar last week. I do think the price was somewhat
justified as they are impressive pieces.
Over the years I have picked up one or two older issues on the secondary market at greatly reduced prices, and I suppose that might continue on occasion. But I expect to see very few if any future medals on the secondary market simply because I don't expect many to be sold by the mint.
At $40 I was eventually willing to pick up a few medals that had special meaning to me. But at $160 there isn't a medal I would buy unless it had my picture on it.
Their price increases were just too much this time. They priced a lot of customers out of the market.
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Interestingly, the 1 5/16” presidential medals were originally produced as affordable collectibles. It was Mary Brooks who introduced them in the 1970s at a cost of $0.50 each - something that even kids could afford when visiting on a field trip. Now they’re $20.
As for the 3” medals, I believe that they were in the $1 - $2 range until the 1940s or so, slowly increasing in price over time. Without looking back at my records I think they were about $6 - $8 in the 1980s.
The selection of medals sold has also decreased over time as it became more expensive to produce such a large variety. Without much demand, the Mint was unable to leverage scale to make them economically. It is not like the 19th century where the Mint could strike a few medals here and there to fulfill small orders.
Funny you should post this @JBK . This morning the medals caught my eye, and I checked them out, not a medal enthusiast, thought it might be fun to buy some of these. Then I saw the prices.
It's too bad, I would have bought a few. $160 seems over the top to me. I'm not liking this new trend of price increases.
The new pricing structure simply assures that I will not be a customer. If I like a design, I will wait until the secondary market is flushing these at bargain prices - and it will happen. Cheers, RickO
I'm glad that I don't now, and never have collected medals. I rarely bought anything from the U.S. Mint in recent years anyway. In my opinion, no way that those medals are worth that kind of money. The only coins that have been reasonably priced, have been the ones that sell out a few minutes after they become available. All other offerings are exorbitantly priced as far as I'm concerned.
I had picked up a couple bronze medals before the price jump but I am still waiting for them to ship. The price increase is out of line if you ask me. I did not see a silver version of the most recent one. Does the silver come later in the year?
I think I bought some 5 years ago a recent presidential medal in large size for about 35 to give to my son. 160? Wouldn't happen again...
Well, just Love coins, period.
$5 & $10 prices reflect the real market. The $160 price is probably designed to kill the program so the mint does not have to continue losing money on medal issues. I don't think the mint has made money on a medal issue since the John Wayne issue of many years ago.
Will coin dealers even buy these medals if you ever want to sell them? Doesn't seem like there would be much of a secondary market for them.
Dealers will probably buy them ... for $2 or $3 each.
I buy the 1-1/2 inch medals for $1 to $2 each. I'll pay $5 to $8 for most of the 3 inch bronze medals. It is very hard to sell the 1-1/2 inch medals for more than $3-$5 each and I almost never get over $10 for the 3 inch bronze medals...even if they are MIB (OGP).
I think your offers are too generous, especially for the smaller medals. I wouldn't pay more than 50 cents each. I recall having some for sale in the past and found them a tough sell at $1.00.
I recall when the small medals cost $1 from the mint, and i thought the increase to $6.95 was outrageous.
Last week I ordered a couple presidential medals and the 9/11 medals for sentimental reasons.
I also bought the 3" Tuskegee Airmen medal I had been eyeing for several years. Theirs is a great story and the design of the obverse is outstanding.
And I bought a 3" Doolittle Raiders medal since I was able to correspond with Gen. Jimmy Doolittle years ago.
Aside from these sentimental favorites, my days of medal collecting directly from the mint are over and done with.
Yea I started collecting the silver prez medals when they started. At $40 seemed pretty good. At $65, I'm done with them also. All my subscriptions from the mint have been canceled since the price increases. I'm done with the mint!!
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I bought the 3” Arnold Palmer a few weeks ago before the price jump. I’m a Palmer fan but more than that, my dad bore a striking resemblance to Arnie and was mistaken for him by strangers on occasion.
maybe
Official "inflation" is 2%; Mint bronze medal price inflation 300%....
The silver medals will be next
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It's so outrageous that one would assume it was just a typo
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I think it’s important to note, within this discussion, that there are many issues within various modern US Mint medal series that have had strong demand at the time of issue (not only the John Wayne medal in the early 1980s), and many do maintain a strong price within the secondary market.
However, that does not change the main point: The issue price of these medals is too high to encourage purchases, even among medal collectors.
I hope one of the numismatic news groups digs further into this. Maybe a FOIA request into this pricing decision and sales figures of recent medal issues from the last 20 years would shed some light on this.
as far as the silver medals goes, it's kept about melt+$30 pricing in recent history [+/-], but the bronzes are abso lunatic pricing now - have to assume it's because demand isn't there, but agree that it'd be great if some numismatic journo got to digging
I think/assume that the mint intends to charge a price for the medals that would cover the cost of the entire process from design to sculpting to die preparation to striking. I see two issues with this.
First, it is my opinion that if Congress authorizes a medal (especially in the case of the Congressional Gold Medals), the start up costs should be covered by Congress, and the cost of the gold presentation medals should absolutely be covered by Congress.
Second, any calculations about costs being offset by revenue from sales will be meaningless now that the prices have been raised so astronomically.
I could see some of these future medals (such as various Treasury Department officials) having mintages in the single or low double digits.