CoinNews.Net: "US Mint Increases Prices on Silver Coins, Silver Sets and Silver Medals"

Yep. Pricing the low collectors out of the market.

The 2019 American Liberty medal went unavailable last Saturday. I know, I had one in my Bag. Guess it doesn't matter what price they display with no inventory. Took 14 months to sell out at $99. Doubt they would have ever sold out at $175:

@ricko said:
I do not understand such a major price increase. Sure, theories abound. Expectations of PM's soaring in price.... Increased price of raw metal stock/depletion of on hand stocks. Even so, those are significant increases. Anyone have any inside information on this pricing? Cheers, RickO

The United States Mint will have had a Net Loss for three consecutive fiscal years (FY2020 has yet to be announced) and the United States Mint has a “fiduciary responsibility to operate at no net cost to taxpayers, and return money to the Treasury General Fund. ”

Price Increases are trying to get the United States Mint to at least a breakeven point on the numismatic side of business...

The mint is no better than any other company. Their costs goes up and those costs get handed down to the consumer. Most companies do this increase little by little over the years and the consumer just gets use to it. When you put a high percentage increase all at once on a product, people will stop buying.

@ricko said:
@cagcrisp... Thank you... and that sounds logical. However, the 'no net cost to taxpayers' is a shell game, since it is the taxpayers that will pay the increased premiums. The mint is there to produce coins, not to make a profit. Cheers, RickO

According to the Mint approximately 30% of Mint customers are Non US citizens...

Using the secondary market has saved me a lot of money on these moderns, and I will continue using it especially for the silver issues.

@cointime - my dilemma is whether to open the sealed boxes and check for milk spots (which have been a big issue with this product) while I can still return to APMEX or store them away and hope for the best.

Any thoughts?

Tim

@PerryHall said:

@pointfivezero said:
@cointime - my dilemma is whether to open the sealed boxes and check for milk spots (which have been a big issue with this product) while I can still return to APMEX or store them away and hope for the best.

Any thoughts?

Tim

I don't think you can return them once the seal is broken. How do they know that you didn't cherry pick the best coins and then substitute less perfect coins?

Good point, @PerryHall. I will call Damon tomorrow and see if my VIP membership includes any special return privileges.

I think it's excessive no matter what was factored in.

@PerryHall - Update on my 2019 American Liberty Silver Medal dilemma. After receiving permission to return if spotted, I decided to open five sealed boxes as a 33.33% sampling exercise. Very happy I did. Four of the five had milk spots, a couple of the obverses were atrocious. I am returning 14 of the 15.

@cointime - Ken, if I were you I'd consider opening your Mint carton unless you have exceeded the return time limit

omg.

poor things.

the mint needs to care enough to figure this out.

@pointfivezero said:
@cointime - my dilemma is whether to open the sealed boxes and check for milk spots (which have been a big issue with this product) while I can still return to APMEX or store them away and hope for the best.

Any thoughts?

Tim

Tim,

Those are all the same thoughts I had when I received mine and decided not to open the box (only 1 medal ordered). I believe the carton is within the First Strike time frame, so I still think I may want to get the FS flag holder - they do look pretty cool. Too late for me to return since I bought it out of the gate Best of luck.

Ken