US Mint Customer Service in the 1960s

Aethelred

I love the notes the mint placed in Proof Sets in the 1950s and 1960s:

"Please do not ask us to make exchanges or adjustments.

If there should appear - WHAT MAY SEEM TO YOU - a defect or scratch on a coin - it is, no doubt, a crease in the packaging material. We tell you this to save us both unnecessary correspondence."

mgoodm3

It basically says that you're a doofus and don't call us.

jhar

I saw one of those in a proof set my wife purchased. We both had good laugh about it.

MrDan

ROFL

MrDan

Oh !! And pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!!! Either..

Chrysta

I thought I remembered hearing that you used to have to wait for months for orders too. This true?

Aethelred

<< <i>I thought I remembered hearing that you used to have to wait for months for orders too. This true? >>



That was before my time, my first orders from the mint were in the late 70s or early 80s, but I remember it taking quite a while then!

nankraut

I waited over 4 months for my 1963 proof sets from the mint. I've still got 'em.

Dennis88

text!!

Dennis

cosmicdebris

<< <i>I thought I remembered hearing that you used to have to wait for months for orders too. This true? >>



Still do. The Silver Duck medal was suppose to ship in October, I am still waiting for it.

pontiacinf

Bill

Did you get a dear john letter on the duck? Was an article 2 issues back in Coin World that they were not
filling anymore as they over sold the item...I pointed this out to numish, but he got his 3 or 4 days later. They
said they mailed dear john letters march 27th.

cosmicdebris

Mine says 1 unit back ordered expected to ship May 17th 2004. I used the subscription service to order mine and none of them were canceled.

originalisbest

Pre-emptive customer service letters from the "old days" are a hoot. If anyone is somewhat familiar with new model kits - when there's a production snafu the instructions tell you "take it back to place of purchase."

I have an old kit from 1955 which had a note tucked in it - saying that if any small pieces were found to be missing, to please understand that with so many pieces, sometimes a defective kit might slip through the cracks. It advised to write for free replacements if this was the case, and ended with all caps: "PLEASE FORGIVE US!"

That's a sentiment not often seen today!

Conder101

<< <i>I thought I remembered hearing that you used to have to wait for months for orders too. This true? >>


In the early 70's the mint ould open up proof set ordering in Feb. Deliveries typically began in late Sept to Oct. Often you would worry about whether or not you would get your sets in time to use them for Christmas presents. (Eight to ten month waits for all mint orders were commonplace. That's why I get a bit of a laugh out of people complaing about slow delays who have only been waiting a few weeks. What the people who have been waiting on the duck medals have been experiencing is what we used to consider t be normal.) Often Coin World would have letters to the editor that complained about the long delays. Until 1978 the longest I ever saw that someone waited before delivery was 2 years 4 months (Back then you could not cancel orders or do returns.). Then in 78 there was a letter from one collector who had just recieved a notice from the mint that his order was sold out and he would be receiving a refund at a future date. What had he ordered? A silver proof Ike dollar. . . .in 1971 over 6 years earlier. I don't know how long it took for him to get his refund.