US Mint Product Schedule Update
Over the weekend, the US Mint made a change to their product schedule. The Letitia Tyler First Spouse Gold Coin, previously scheduled for June 4, 2009 has been delayed until July 1, 2009.
On several occasions this year, the US Mint has delayed products just prior to their published release dates. At this time, the reason for the delay is unknown.
The schedule change brings to light a few issues. According to the US Mint, they are authorized to produced and sell First Spouse Gold Coins "for approximately one year from the date of issue or until sold out, whichever occurs first." In practice we have seen the US Mint end sales of the year-ago release to coincide with the release of the current issue. Most recently, sales of the Elizabeth Monroe coins ended as the Anna Harrison coin sales began.
The Louisa Adams First Spouse Gold Coin is next in line to have sales end. The coins originally went on sale May 29, 2009, so they are already over the one year mark. Will the US Mint continue to offer the coins for sale until the release date of the Letitia Tyler coin? This would results in a sales period of over 13 months. This may cause frustration for collectors who were awaiting the end of sales to lock in a low mintage figure for the Louisa Adams coins. Sales figures now stand at 3,958 and 6,620 for the uncirculated and proof versions respectively.
A second issue caused by the delay is the eventual pricing for the Letitia Tyler coin. Under the US Mint's current pricing policy, prices are determined based on the average London Fix price of gold for the preceding week. When the average price moves across price ranges set at $50 intervals, prices are adjusted. Gold has been moving up steadily for the past several weeks, resulting in a price increase two weeks ago and likely this week. If gold's momentum continues during June, the price of the Letitia Tyler coins may be the highest initial pricing for any coin in the series to date.
A final consideration, with the release date moved up until July, the US Mint's product release schedule will be completely empty for the remainder of the month. The eagerly awaited 2009 Proof Set will go on sale today June 1, 2009 at 12:00 Noon ET. After that, collectors will have to wait until July for the next product. Except for the year end period, I can't recall such a long dry spell for US Mint product in recent years.
Labels: US Mint
posted by Mint News Blog @ 7:32 AM
28 Comments:
Does anyone else suspect the mint is running out of gold for collector coins due to high bullion demand?
You hit the nail right on the head for the Louisa Adams coins, Mike. I just KNOW the bums won't pull the coins off-sale on June 4th as they would have originally. That means they'll continue to sell them until at least July 1st, cheating those of us who bought them on good faith of sales ending after a year by increasing the mintage over what it would have been.
Sales of the uncirculated coin did spike in recent weeks, undoubtedly by those who wanted to have it due to the liklihood of a mintage under 4,000 coins. That looked unlikely as of the last report, but if they are sold for another month and all other factors remain constant, the number could finish close to the one posted by Elizabeth Monroe.
The only saving grace in this situation is that due to gold's steady march upward, the prices of the coins will rise again as well. Maybe that, combined with the unexpected continuation of sales, will spur slow sales of the coins during the extended availability period. Maybe anyone who still has the coins during the return period will take advantage of that as well. One can only hope.
If you have clout or connections with the Mint, please point out to them that they need to pull the Louisa Adams coin off sale per their own policy of a one year sales period.
Since there are five spouse coins released this year, what happens next year when only four are released?
They cannot take one off as a new one comes out as the sequence is broken.
The mint should have stuck to the one year only and pulled them on the anniversary of their release for sale.
That would make the most sense, yes. That's probably why they don't do it that way.
I dont think you have to worry about sales figures going up. With the price of gold going up, they are holding off to make more profit on the new release, IMHO.
The Mint's online store won't seem to load at all for me right now, and has been that way for at least a half hour. Is anyone else having that problem? I really didn't think the Proof Set would result in a bog-down, especially one of this length. It went on sale over 2-1/2 hours ago!
It is still slow for me also. But still trying
I went on at the stroke of 12 and bought my sets with no delay at all. I wonder if its order volume or just a glitch in the site?
I just called and got through the mint.
The online store still won't load. Imagine, a first-day sellout of a "plain vanilla" proof set! Wouldn't THAT be incredible? Hee hee.
or when people are ordering the lincoln set that is comming soon
: (
The United States Mint is performing routine system maintenance. The system maintenance is scheduled from 12:00am until 8:00am Eastern Time. During this time period you will not be able to access the Catalog. We apologize for any inconvenience.
I thought 8:00 AM was 11 and 1/2 hours ago.
what is going on with the mint's site? says it is under routine maintenance from 12AM - 8AM ET, but it's 6PM ET at time of this post.
Was anyone able to purchase their 09 annual proof set today?
Yes, I got 4 proof sets, although transaction was incredibly slow. Had to make phone call, as server glitch suggested my order didn't go through; but a search by Mint person confirmed that order had gone through.
Yes, I logged on the Mint website about 5 minutes before 9 PST and ordered 2 sets. Maybe I should have ordered more and gone to the bay.
Got my order in 10 min ago.
Spouse, Julia Tyler in Proof should be very pleasing to the eye.
This year is a real joke. Remember when we had fractional gold and platinum and many different choices, in collector coins--less than a year ago, people. The Mint played their games, but it least we were buying SOMETHING. This is absurd. Shame on the US Mint! Mike it must be pretty boring these days--maybe you can expand your subject? :)
Anybody know why I am not getting the option for free upgrade to expedited shipping since I am ordering 11 sets (over $300)?
If the Mint follows the sequence in their product schedule, we should be seeing a huge number of products in July. The American Samoa quarters should be due out in late July and you can see all of the products preceding these. Of course, the Mint could delay any of these as well.
6:34, read the FAQ at the US Mint catalog site. If you choose standard shipping and you are eligible for expedited shipping, your items will be shipped expedited (you will pay standard shipping charges). If you choose expedited, your items will be shipped expedited and YOU WILL BE CHARGED EXPEDITED, even if you qualified for an expedited upgrade.
Gold and Silver have shot up dramatically in the last month. I bet that is why the Mint is hold back on the next Spouse coin. The mint stands to make TONS more money if they wait until they can change the price.
Question: Michael, do you happen to know how many "2008 US Mint Silver Proof Sets" have been minted/sold to date? To me it's like the set that never dies. Still for sale in the Mint Catalog.
"2008 US Mint Silver Proof Sets"
756,109
Regarding: "2008 US Mint Silver Proof Sets."
I have a theory. I decided to stock up on those and the 2009 Silver Qtrs. With my luck, those will both be high mintage and I'll be lucky to breakeven, even with $20+ silver around the corner.
Note, I had to return six of the last ten 2008 Silver Proof sets I ordered last month as they had a cracked case (or cases). Shipping box looked fine (so I considered keeping it "unopened" for later sale). Fortunately I opened it. They continue to put insufficient protection inside the box to protect the contents (one small piece of brown grocery bag type paper at the bottom) and all the sets on one side (five) were dented in the same spot. Those 5 + 1 other contained cracked cases. Ticks me off that I had to pay $16 to return them considering it was the fault of the US Mint's fullfilment center pack job in Indiana.
Yeah, the Mint's fulfillment center pack jobs are a real joke.
On another note, the Louisa Adams coins do indeed remain for sale on the Mint website today, just as I knew they would. The lying #$%@! Now those coins will be sold until at least July 1, courtesy of the Mint needlessly postponing the start of sales for the Letitia Tyler coins. Even with that delay, they STILL won't be offering BOTH Tyler spouses on the same day! What gives with that? All I can figure is that they want the die-hards or "First Strike" crazed people to order them both on their separate first days, so they will get double the s/h charges. I sure as heck won't be ordering them separately. I haven't even ordered the Anna Harrison coins yet.
I might just give up on the whole First Spouse series in general, especially if we can't depend on the Mint to honor their own policy of removing the coins from sale after a year. I'm sorry, but a 13 month sales period is NOT "approximately one year." Now those Louisa Adams coins might have a mintage as high as Elizabeth Monroes, but they SHOULD have some in significantly under that.
I'm starting to hate the Mint.
approximately is different than exactly
Yes, I know. But like I said, 13 months is not approximately one year. The extra week or so that the Dolley Madison and Elizabeth Monroes were available qualified, but the Louisa Adams should still have been pulled off-sale today despite the delay in offering Letitia Tyler. The people at the Mint who make these decisions are morons.
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