US vs Canadian Mint

z2collection

Ok, not a big fan of canadian money- even if it is worth more than ours right now. What the HELL is wrong with the US Mint!? Really, fire MOY! Have you seen the canadian mint?! The packaging is superb! The coins and the quality of the coins far exceeds the us mint! Far exceeds! The offerings and quality are so much better! There is no excuse for the US Mint to put out proof sets in 2c packaging. Wow, finally in the last two years something new like a reverse proof.... Really, canadian mint is far past that point- plasma effect coins, palladium coins, kilo coins- I say fire these US mint bozos! I feel like the us mint can barely compete with the lichtenstein mint! Sorry state of affairs!

CaptainRon

Who cares about the packaging, when what is really important is to get those suckers to the grading services to get put in those nifty first strike pieces of plastic.

z2collection

I think they got rid of these first strikes. What a fallacy! The only one who knows its a first strike would be the goofballs at the us mint and they aren't intelligent enough to capitalize on it. But hey, at least a few lawyers made some cash on it. I seen that coming a mile off!

z2collection

This is an important topic for all you coin enthusiasts. I would be disappointed if you didn't weigh in! Ron's dogs are clearly upset about the lackluster response as well!

Leonidas

Yeah...But how do you really feel ?

TwoSides2aCoin

I'm in Canada at the moment. All the coins can be picked up with a magnet. I didn't think our coins could be picked up that way. What is the metal content in the business struck coins that makes them unattracted to magnetism ? When I say unattracted, I mean a magnet won't pick up U.S. Coins, will it ?

Okay, that's my question.

BBN

ferrous/non ferrous is the difference I believe. Maybe iron is in hoser coins

z2collection

Ok, very good point- Canadian Mint officials are cheapskates but we are getting off topic here!

Zoins

Some US coins come in nicer cases like the wood ones. Of course, there are also the Chinese bags.

lordmarcovan

It's true that the RCM could teach the US Mint a thing or two about quality and other things.

But the US Mint is learning... gradually.

The Statehood quarter thing is sort of a bigger spinoff of what the Canadians did first.

I just think the US Mint could have listened a little more to Canadian experience when it came to selecting an alloy for the Sacagawea/Presidential dollars. The Sacs I've seen in circulation don't retain their "gold" color for long, whereas Canadian "Loonies" do a lot better. They don't seem to get as smudgy so fast. Mind you, I live in the Southeastern USA, so we don't see as much Canadian coinage in circulation as the folks up North do, but I think I've seen enough to pronounce the Loonie superior to the Sac dollar in terms of alloy.

And they spent so much time and effort choosing the alloy for the Sacs, too. Seems like they could've taken some pointers from the Canadians instead of trying to reinvent the wheel.

But I give the Mint credit. They've come a long way since I was a lad. In my childhood and early collecting days, the Bicentennial coins and the advent of the SBA dollar were about the only changes in the monotony.

Zoins

<< <i>The Statehood quarter thing is sort of a bigger spinoff of what the Canadians did first. >>

It's not just sort of. If you listen to Mike Castle, the SHQs are directly inspired by the Canadian series and was an idea pushed on Congress by numismatists. They needed Canada to take the lead and numismatists to convince them to follow.

Rarity

<< <i>Some US coins come in nicer cases like the wood ones. Of course, there are also the Chinese bags. >>



I wonder if the Chinese made coin boxes or holders are contaminated like their toys.

SportsModerator

Customer service:

The Canadian Mint customer service is superb! Friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable.
The US Mint, well ummm.....did I mention that the Canadian Mint customer service is superb! Friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable?

Michigan

The Canadian mint is good at packaging since that seems to be their main function these days, they turn out a huge number of dubious
"commemmorative" issues for things are I'm sure are very obscure even to most Canadians.

SportsModerator

<< <i>The Canadian mint is good at packaging since that seems to be their main function these days, they turn out a huge number of dubious
"commemmorative" issues for things are I'm sure are very obscure even to most Canadians. >>



Hey! Are you saying that the square holed, bimetal, enameled, dollar coin honoring the 37th. anniversary of the Manitoba Muskrat Rodeo is dubious?

Shocking, utterly shocking I say!

frostbyte

It seems silly to just keep adding 9's to the purity of the gold....but I'd love to get me one of those $200 5 9 coins if they weren't so much over spot. ^_^

Michigan

I have this vision of several mint employees cruising the internet every day looking for ideas for something Canadian to commemorate.

Years ago they issued a coin for the 55th anniversary of the Canadian oil industry (for real) , I can imagine a conversation between two of them went something like this:

"How about the Canadian oil industry?"

"Sounds good, what have you got?"

"oh rats"

"what's wrong?"

"We missed the 50th anniversary, how did that slip by us?"

"don't know but wait a minute, it is now 55 years"

"sounds like a winner, lets go for it"

ricko

The US Mint is atrocious... their designs are trash, the product itself seems like it has been outsourced (with the exception of the ASE's and AGE's), there is absolutely no artistic contribution to the designs whatsoever. Most of the SHQ's were 'designed by committee' and therefore representative of nothing - with the exception of Texas. The mint has the mistaken idea that flooding the market will make them tremendous profit (and, indeed it has - at least for the short term), whereas quality in design and product would assure long term demand and even attention from international collectors. It always proves true.. quality survives. Cheers, RickO