More true confessions from the U.S. Mint - discount sales of unsold bulk inventory...
BillDugan1959
Posts: 3,821 ✭✭✭✭✭
Today's Coin World (18 Nov 2019 dated issue) says the U.S. Mint sold an additional 183,781 previously Unsold Proof 2016-W ASE silver dollars to four bidders for an average of $29.38 per coin. The regular issue price was $53.95 per coin. The Mint got $5.4 million in the process and avoided the packaging trash and the melting of the silver. I will attempt to add a link but doubt that it will work.
All in all, it might be a breach of faith with the earlier purchasers.
https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/CoinWorld/Default.aspx
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I wonder who the LUCKY Bidders were? Are these going to be available on our favorite TV Show!
I can see these going for a HOT $price of $129.99 a set! With some Spectacular LOW MINTAGE PITCH!!!
Maybe bullion.exchanges was one. Received an email from them. Doing a "flash" sale on ebay and offering these for $39.50 each through Nov. 4th. No longer available now though.
A bit sad though... people paid the premium price and now these go for bargain basement price. However, that is the story with most businesses and sales.... excess inventory let go for less than initial price....So nothing new, just clearing out the inventory without adding additional cost (i.e. melting etc.) Cheers, RickO
It's interesting. Back in 2017, when the Mint had 10,000 returned Enhanced Uncirculated sets that they eventually destroyed, I asked @wondercoin if he had a Mint contact. I wanted to buy them as they were. He said he'd never heard of the Mint doing such a thing. New sheriff in town, I guess. How do I get on the bidder list?
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
I just did an on-line search but the date only goes to 2015. Most dates exceed 500,000 and in many instances substantially. Are there really anywhere near that many collectors for it? I'd rate the chances around zero.
On one occasion, I'd read that these used to be included in private retirement accounts but that demand from this source had dropped off noticeably.
Given how common practically all are, $53.95 is way too much and I wouldn't pay $39.50 even if I collected this type of coin.
Excess inventory should be mandated to be melted. It's a slap in the face to the mints most loyal customers who paid the initial high price. The mint could sell them as scrap silver with the stipulation of melt only. Plus disposal of packaging and mint monitoring of the melt.
I'm all for melting the excess inventory. My work was involved in such an event with the Canadian mint a few years back. We had to break down all the packaging, destroy it, and melt all the coins. Something like 5000 ozt of silver. It was over copy right contracts all legal jargon to me. Some of the coins were sold over seas before the melt event, making them quite rare.
One might hold the U.S. Mint production managers to a somewhat stricter standard too - the Red Book suggests that approximately 596,000 2016-W proof coins were already out there, so another unsold 184,000 proof coins was a sizable overproduction (if I am interpreting the numbers correctly).
But collectors also do hate when the Mint shuts things off too early. Happens sometimes.
Sorry you gotta be connected. Maybe if your last name was Bid@#.
How is it a slap in the face to sell off the remnants of an item that was advertised with UNLIMITED mintage?
That said, I'm not sure why they don't have an online sale at a reduced price before they sell off the remnants in bulk.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
It's like a poke with a stick after you paid full price then find out you could get it at a big discount. Played by the mint, sort of. Unlimited mintage but when the time runs out and there is a bunch left that didn't sell they should be melted. Just my feeling about it.
Almost every Mint issue can be bought at a discount a couple years down the road.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
I’m glad the forum cured me.
Tax dollars were used to produce it.
I would be happier if the mint received more money selling it at a discount than trashing it. Although gold and silver would yield something as melt, selling 1 ounce for $29 or whatever, yields more.
Clad would, IMHO, not even be a breakeven after paying for the labor, plus throwing a bunch of burned crud into the atmosphere.
$5.4 million in the PLUS side instead of spending $$ (getting some back in silver $$) to destroy something.
It is a good thing that some of the thoughts expressed here did not get implemented with the GSA hoard of mostly CC dollars. "I paid big $$ for a CC Morgan, and now the US Gov't is going to sell them for a discount to what the "normal" price is? Melt them ALL !!
I agree, it's okay that the mint sell this stuff off at a lesser price, but they should have to grind the mintmarks off first to show buyers that these are "irregulars"! Sorta like buying those trapazoid shaped sheets at a discount
Most certainly a given. That said, I have to agree with jmlanaf. The United States Mint has billions of surplus coinage sitting in vaults awaiting distribution which never seems to come. It would be more beneficial and profitable to sell them off at a discount to the collector community in bundles rather than large bulk. Seriously, who wouldn't buy five year old silver at half the issue? Doing the math that's well above the current spot.
If the reduced price is still “well above the current spot”, I think a great many people wouldn’t buy them.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Depends on the issue. For commems and proof issues, they could probably sell a fair number. Obviously the resellers who paid almost $30 for the proof eagles felt their customers would pay $35 to $40.
It would be better for the Mint to sell them at 25% off rather than melting them. The problem they would have and the problem they MAY have created here, is that if they show a willingness to discount, they run the risk of their buyers dumping their subscriptions and waiting them out. That happens to some extent now as people routinely say, "I'll buy it in a couple years when the price has come down."
The Mint really should strictly limit all of their non-bullion products if they want to support the price. Minting an extra 200,000 Eagles in this case was really poor business. The problem is, I'm not sure they make any money on limited editions of 10,000 coins unless they jack the prices up considerably.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
The true coins (e.g. the "Golden" Dollars) were delivered to the Federal Reserve and are sitting in THEIR vaults.
ANA 50 year/Life Member (now "Emeritus")
I never buy direct from the mint anymore. I just wait for the hype to pass and then can usually find silver and gold issues right around spot within a few years.
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
BOOMIN!™
Wooooha! Did someone just say it's officially "TACO™" Tuesday????
Of course if it is gold coins the Mint just throws them away.
Coin World: $1 million in First Spouse gold coins wrongly sent for destruction
https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1027689/coin-world-1-million-in-first-spouse-gold-coins-wrongly-sent-for-destruction
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From what I can see like any other business, the US Mint and at least several others are trying to maximize how much they can extract from their buyers. That's why practically all issues are financial losers in the secondary market. It isn't poor business as long as buyers keep on accommodating it.
To make about the same profit by reducing the mintage over 98% to 10,000 for the proof ASE, the price might have to be over $2,000 and hardly anyone would want to buy it. 10,000 is a "low" mintage by US standards but I doubt there are that many collecting the series who can either afford or want it that badly to pay this amount every year.
I wasn't suggesting 10,000 for eagles. The commemorative dollar series was more what I was thinking about. The proof eagles should probably be 250,000 or less in the current environment.
All comments reflect the opinion of the author, evn when irrefutably accurate.
Ok, makes sense.
By producing ASE proofs with two different Mint marks, the Mint seems to have hit a better point for these - stopped or slowed the sales decline for a while at least.