The Mint Looks to Cash in on Presidential Dollars!

[DC Dawg]

Step right up and get your Presidential Dollars, here!

 

Lookie, lookie, lookie here folks... the US Mint will sell you dollars any way you can slice, dice and package them.

 

Bags and rolls are so 2007. No, your US Mint can do better... aside from a US Mint branded album (not by HE Harris) that can only hold two years worth of dollars so you can pay them every couple of years until the program runs out, the Mint has created all new collectibles, just for you!

 

But the Mint does not stop there. Oh no... now you can get a new Dollar Set with uncirculated coins and an uncirculated American Silver Eagle. Isn't this exciting, boys and girls?

 

But wait, there's more! The Mint cannot let all those unused coins sit around. So it's inventory reduction time and you can benefit from their situation. Rather than go to the bank and buy boring rolls, get your dollars on specially printed souvenir cards. That's right... your US Mint has come up with a new set of collectibles offering souvenir set with only Philadelphia coins, or a set with only Denver coins, or a complete P&D set. What a bargain!!

 

I know what you are saying... you like those shiny proof coins. Nothing beats a beautiful shiny coin, right? Well, the US Mint has you covered. in addition to the standard proof set which is so last week, the Mint will sell you individual cards with proof coins from each of the first four presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.

 

But you ask, what about the ladies... we cannot leave out the ladies, right? OF COURSE NOT!!

Take an uncirculated coin of George and add a Martha bronze medal, and viola! An instant collectible! If George and Martha are not on your Christmas list, you can also buy the Adams family, Tommy Jefferson and the medal not of his wife (or Sally Hemmings ), and you can say hello to Dolly and James Madison!

 

ACT NOW! Offers this good do not last long. Just contact the US Mint and order yours today!!

 

-------------------

 

While my tone is tongue-in-cheek, the product list is not! It was announced today.

 

Now I admit to being somewhat of a US Mint fanboy when it comes to souvenir products. Since the quarters "craze" began, I have been buying a lot from the Mint. I have collections of the First Day Covers, Mint Sets, Proof Sets, the Stamps and Quarters portfolios, but this is going way too far! I may consider the card with the dollar and the First Spouse Medal, but that's all. It really is over the edge!!

 

Scott

[bsshog40]

Man they sure are trying to get these out. I haven't checked the mint site in a while. Next thing you know, they'll start selling the colored one's and start putting them in little happy birthday display cards, etc....

[Arizonadesertrat]

You left out monogrammed T-shirts, First Spouse umbrellas, inverse proof refrigerator magnets, and 2008 commemorative boxer shorts.

[cpm9ball]

...........and as long as there are people foolish enough to buy from the TV hucksters, there will obviously be people who will buy from the Mint.

 

I think it was 2005 when I read an article that reported if you were to buy one of each item the Mint offered that year, it would cost you about $15,000. I wonder if it has gotten to $20,000 yet. On second thought, I wonder if it has gotten to $30,000 yet.

 

Chris

[richbeat]

Well, they're not as bad as the RCM yet, but they're getting there!

[BillJones]

WOW !!!

 

These presidential dollars are really something!

 

And here I am wondering how much money I'll need to lose to dump to the dollar Proof sets I'm stuck with.

 

More junk from the mint ...

 

The agency needs to look at what the post office did to stamp collectors back in the 1960s and '70s. They pretty much ruined that hobby.

[dpoole]

I'm sure the Mint will add some special "wash" to the MS dollar sets.

 

The packaging is bad enough. Just the number of issues, changing reverses on nickels and Lincolns, MS bullion with or without mint marks, etc.

 

It's the commems all over again. They figured out not to flood the market with commems after they started up, apparently having learned the lesson from the 30's, 40's and 50's. But the flood gates are open on the different business coinage and bullion issues.

 

Why do people inexorably kill the goose that laid the golden egg? A fascinating question about human nature, that.

[DC Dawg]

Well, they're not as bad as the RCM yet, but they're getting there!

I was thinking about that, too. But the RCM overloads on the number of NCLT coins and not the packaging.

 

Scott

[CoinCurious]

Im a sucker for the U.S. mint. I purchased 3 of the Mint dollar sets which included the silver eagle. $31.95 each. Original issue price of the silver eagle was $21.95 (which is now sold out for the individual coin). In my area it is impossible to get the Sacagawea uncirculated so I bought the set. I also look at it as if I payed $26.95 for the silver eagle and just exchanged $5.

[CHABSENTIA]

I have subscriptions for the things that I collect except for the Morgan Dollars. I have a subscription for the Unc and Proof A.S.E As a matter of fact I received a notice from the U.S.Mint today that they would be processing the subscription for the 2008 A.S.E Proof within three weeks.

 

I also have a subscription to the Quarters as well as Annual Proof and Mint Sets.I just note them and put them away. I will send the 2008 Proof in for grading and add it to my existing set.I will do the same for the unc if I get one as per earlier this year as the 2007W.

 

It is not economically feasable for the others although I will look at certain years later such as the 1971 Proof set etc.

 

This way I am assured of getting the sets that I collect at the very first and don't have to worry about buying a mix of certain promotions to get one coin later on.

 

If I need a certain coin say a certain SAC then I only have to go to my Earlier sets unless it was issued outside of it which is not the normal case.

 

I do have extra Presidential coins because they were issued with other regular sets.

[rons]

I bought the gold eagle and the SAE set last year. I sent it back after the mint announced they would be releasing other SAE"s and GAE"s. I filled in the return form and told them I wasn't interested in paying $100 for the packaging. Of course, since then the coins have exploded but I still did the right thing in my mind. The mint only took 3 months to refund my $800??? What a service oriented business where even if the customer is right they hold your money until they are ready to refund it. Blah

[bsshog40]

Well the prez's must be getting popular. I had a collection going of NGC MS65 FDI's that I know I paid no more than $30 for each P&D set. These were Washington & Adams. Now Jefferson and Madison's are selling for $45 & $50 a set.

[Revenant]

Well the prez's must be getting popular. I had a collection going of NGC MS65 FDI's that I know I paid no more than $30 for each P&D set. These were Washington & Adams. Now Jefferson and Madison's are selling for $45 & $50 a set.

 

Well, I don't know what you've been seeing but I purchased my Washington and Adams P&Ds for about $35 to $40 in MS65FDI months ago and just the other day I was able to get some Washington Adams and Jefferson "P" coins for about $7 each in MS65FDI. Granted, these weren't P & D sets, they were just the "P" coins but I think the popularity of these coins has dropped. The only thing that I see boosting the price of the Madisons is that they were only released about 20 days ago and they reached the certified coin market more recently than that. The Madisons will drop once most people that want them rabidly have them.

 

[TheMightyDuke]

Perhaps they have figured out how to defeat the flippers of non-gold/non-platinum products......just flood the secondary market, as Dpoole mentioned with what they did in the '30's and '40's with the classic commems. They are STILL selling rolls of 2001 Kennedys......does anyone else find that 'just not right'?

[Conder101]

They are STILL selling rolls of 2001 Kennedys......does anyone else find that 'just not right'?

No, I see it as perfectly understandable. The 2001's were struck in the assumption that they would go to their primary customer the Federal Reserve and be used for circulation. But then the Fed decided they had enough halves and left the Mint stuck with 40 million coins. So the Mint turned to its second main customer the collector. But the saturation point for roll and bag sales is about 5 million coins of any one date and mint combination, so the Mint is still sitting on 30 million coins. They won't melt them because that would result in a negative senoirage so that leaves keeping them on sale where a few more bags and rolls trickle out each year until the Fed asks for half dollars again. At which time, you will probably see the rest of the 2001 halves dumped into circulation. If they don't continue selling them they will just have a slightly larger amount to dump into circulation.

[TheMightyDuke]

Conder....totally understood about the seignorage issue. However, are we really supposed to think/assume that 2001 was the ONLY year the Fed didnt want halves, as they werent circulating? When was the last time halves really DID circulate? I would be willing to guesstimate they havent circulated, truly circulated, since the last Frankie in '63. 1964 saw people hoarding them due to the Kennedy assassination. In 1970, there was only the 'D' mint marked half, which was only in mint sets. And lets not even begin to go through the 90%/40% silver issue during the great melt.

[Conder101]

The difference is that in the earlier years the Fed did take the halves and then they were the Feds problem and the Fed doesn't sell coins directly to the public like the Mint does. (And although the halves don't "circulate", they do tend to have a small one way circulation from the Fed to the banks to private hoards.) With the 2001's they left the halves with the Mint and they sat in the Mints vaults. Well the Mint didn't want them so they started selling them.

 

 

[Revenant]

Mintage of the half dollars also dropped radically after 2001. For 2001 and before, mintage is about 19 to 21 Million from each mint. For 2002 forward, mintage dropped to about 2.5 to 3 Million from each mint, solving the mint's surplus problem.