Ultra High Relief Gold Double Eagles on Sale
The 2009 Ultra High Relief Gold Double Eagles just went on sale. The US Mint also finally issued their official press release announcing the availability and ordering options for the product.
The US Mint's website has slowed to a crawl for the UHR product page and check out pages. I have also heard reports that some phone calls to the US Mint's ordering center are picked up by an automated message asking the customer to call back later.
I managed to get an order through a few minutes ago. The status for the coin is listed as "Backordered" with a ship date listed as "2009-01-28"
Check out the Ultra High Relief Order Thread on Coin Network.
Labels: Ultra High Relief
posted by Mint News Blog @ 9:26 AM
30 Comments:
What a mess getting through...I got the backordered status too. Is this what everyone got or just us unlucky ones?
I also received the same backordered status. I accessed the site at noon EST and was not able to check out until 12:28. I tried placing the order through phone but received the message that the mint is unable to take calls at the moment. I was trying to place my order on my Blackberry, laptop and desktop computers (whichever was first to take me through the whole process). The desktop won. Interesting that the expected ship date for the coin is 1/28 and the supplementary booklet is expected to ship on 2/6. Why would they not have enough booklets to ship earlier???
Pain in the -- getting through for me, too. Much like the Jefferson's Liberty coin in August 2007. It took me 45 minutes to get through to place my order, and I just missed the bus as a result. Have to wait another half hour to get to work.
Not a fun ordering process...took 45 minutes through the website, I was actually connected through the 800 number twice and the calls were dropped both times before reaching an agent. Ship date is 2/6
After not being able to get through on either the Mint's 800 # or catalog website, I used the 2nd UHR link & was able to place an order in 1 minute. Thanks for the link Michael!
Man, it took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to get an order placed! It didn't help that I couldn't use "quick checkout", because I had to change the shipping address to my physical address so I could get the free upgrade to expedited shipping. Items shipped to my default billing address of my P.O. Box take WAY too long to arrive!
My experience ordering the coin today was far worse than when I ordered the sellout First Spouse coins, or when I ordered the 20th Anniversary American Eagle Gold Coin Sets on August 30, 2006. After all these years, WHY can't the Mint get their website to be able to handle heavy traffic?
My order status has just been updated from an expected shipping date of 1/28 to "In stock and reserved". I might not have to wait 6-9 months after all. Yay!
Thank you. After many attempts, I was able to purchase a coin through the link on this website.
My order has also been updated to "in stock and reserved". Hope to have it soon. Key word... "Hope"
I was able to get through via the Internet and it took me 15 minutes when all was said and done. I tried every avenue available...telephone, computer, cell phone...What a pain! Kept getting the recorded message from the Mint...Finally was able to process my order through their web site. My ship status is the same as everyone else from the looks of it...backordered with a projected ship date of 1/28/2009. Not too bad. My sister-in-law used me to order her coin and she has a projected ship date of 2/8/2009.
My order was also revised to read "In stock and reserved". I hope that means what I think it means...Yay!
My father and I were both trying to get orders in. My father tried the business address and I got the home address! We both eventually checked out about 30 minutes after the initial release. The links on this page really helped me out to expedite the process. I had it in my Mozilla bookmarks bar for the past week! Woohoo!
Furthermore, I, too, have the updated "In stock and reserved" status. However, I have the same status for three 1/10th oz GAE Proofs! Hope is the KEY word.
Started refreshing the website at 9:00 am and got my order through at about 9:15 am. I got the same message as others regarding 1/28/09 ship. I went back to check my order status and the status for the coin is "In stock and reserved." The status for the coin book in "1 unit backordered. Expect to ship 2/6/09."
Any idea how many UHR could sell in the first 1-2 hrs? I am assuming 2000 orders were done per evry 10 min; or maybe more???
The entire world is happy...except for a small portion of white Americans in the south and mid-west!
I believe everone who tried to place an order with the Mint today,no mater what method, experience all the same and typical issure. The Mint in still not in touch with Custmer service and what retail catalog, phone business is all about. They need to talk with Lands End, LL Beam, etc. get their head out of the sands.
Forty-five freaking minutes! Our government dollars at work. What a joke!
I'm also mad because I was born in the mid-West and now live in the South.
Well it was off to the race's phone in one hand and the mouse in the other. The mouse won, order was received 9.22 am 1/22/09. IN STOCK AND RESERVED.
On the other hand It took my
brother-in-law till 9.55 am to get his order placed and his shows backordered. We compared order numbers which worked out that the mint was processing at lease 155 orders per minute through the internet.I Believe the order number system also includes phone orders So if this is the case and avery order included the UH1, Then i would be the 3,410 person to order the UH1 (22 minutes X 155 orders per minute = 3,410) Which would work out to 9,300 coins sold per hour at peak time (first orders).
Hi, Henry Paulson here, and I'd just like to say that by announcing the exact date and time of a heavily promoted release, never mind the most hotly hyped and anticipated product the Mint has arguably ever offered, they effectively set themselves up for a virtual denial of service attack. Not only was the web site unresponsive in my quarter of the left coast until 9:20 a.m PST (my UHR order went through around 9:50, finally), but the phones were down too-- no doubt routed to somewhere in Mumbai. I propose not notifying anyone of anything, just say you're going to put the things up on the web site during a window of a month-- say, January-ish; that's what the mint is good at anyway, being indecisive. Or do like the did with gas rationing in the 70s-- by last name, or odd/even days of the week, whee!
By the way, has anyone else notice how hoky the US Mint web site is? So last century. The way the pages are narrow and shoved to the left, and how they just kind of end in open space on the right is almost charmingly comical. I wouldn't mint-- er, mind-- it so much, except for the fact that other national mints like the RCM or Perth sites are so much more modern and just generally kick our ass. It's time to retool the web site along with some new coin designs, isn't it, Mr. Mother Moy I? Then again, there's the Russian and Mexican sites so I guess things aren't as bad as they could be (rimshot, please).
Anyway, the deal finally went down and when the dust settled I had a backordered UHR (Feb. 6 I believe), cheers.
P.S. I lied on the recent survey asking people if they were going to buy the UHR, I said "no" to skew the data to the negtive and dissude others from getting in thereby reducing the competition (and mintages) when I really intended to buy it all along ... don't think it worked. Then again, I got the American people to acquiesce to having a TARP thrown over them, so you never know. All my rich buds that I helped bail out are like, dude, you rock. And you know what? They're right.
-- Hank
I talked to customer service at the mint, they said they sold about 25,000 UHR coins in the first four hours.
Do you know if the Mint will be producing W-Burnished SAE this year? It's not on the schedule and I'm curious as to why. As much as I'd like a Gold High Relief, it's too rich for me, and prefer the collectible W-Burn SAE.
The 2009-W Burnished Silver Eagle should be produced this year, as it was no on the discontinued product list.
So far, no Silver, Gold, or Platinum Eagles have appeared on the schedule.
I was not able to checkout until 1:43pm yesterday. The shipping date for the coin is 6 Feb, book one day later. I am not as lucky as you guys who have the in stock and reserved status. Mine is still backordered and on hold. It seems that the first folks in only have to wait one week. After one hour it seems we have to wait 2 weeks. I'll feel better when my order status is in stock and reserved! I wonder how many people placed orders for an $1189 item with so many restrictions?
I started calling immediately on 01-22-09 at 11:58 EST after trying to access the US Mint's website - it was just crawling. I never got to the order confirmation page. It took me until 12:48 to finally get through to a CSR after two disconnects. The shipping time frame that I was given by the CSR on the telephone was 2 weeks to 6 months; but, "Because you are one of the first to call in the first hour on the first day your order will most likily ship in two weeks." I just got a "back order" email today (01-23-09)indicating the ship date will be 02-06-09.
I know I'm paying a significant premium; but, I can't wait to get it. I really wish that the US Mint would have taken a little more time to consider the design/ relief and would have minted this coin on a larger planchet that would be closer in size to the original 1907 high reief Saint.
I'll watch for Michael Z's intell on mintage throughout the year before I consider buying another one.
What's the scoop on the '07 Reverse Proof Platinum two coin set? I would have purchased one of them also to save on the shipping if they would have been available yesterday.
The same as everybody else. Constant redial on the cell. I was working outside in 25 degree temps and gave up after 20 finger numbing minutes. Logged in on-line at 3:45PM, and it took only 30 seconds to place my order. Based on my order number and assuming that there were only a few people ordering mint sets that day, there were over 23,000 orders in that time
Well...My expected shipping date was pushed back even further to February 10, 2009, and I got my order in at roughly 45 minutes after selling started. I expect this to continue moving out as all government entities are bass-ackwards where running a business is concerned.
Okay...just got another notice from the US Mint pushing my expected shipping date out to February 11th. I expect this will continue for some time. Again, it took me approximately 45 minutes to get my order in. Good luck to all that show backordered.
-angry in the south.
I also received a notice from the mint today that my UHR coin and book are backordered with an expected ship date of 2/6. Originally it was 1/28 and then placed on "In stock and reserved" status. I don't understand, how can it go from being in stock to backordered??? I completed my purchase within the first 30 minutes of the item going on sale. I am a marketing manager for a mid-size manufacturer, and we will never launch a product without having sufficient stock for initial orders. I feel cheated in a way and still wonder what happened to my so-called in stock coin.
Let's hope we all get our shipments.
Does anyone think the First Issue coins will have a premium?
Very interesting...my order status for the UHR has moved from February 11th to February 6th. What's up with that? Maybe they're playing mind games with me since I am just an angry southerner who was born in the mid-west.
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