Martin Van Buren Dollar Direct Ship Rolls Available

Yesterday, the US Mint added Martin Van Buren Dollars to their Direct Ship Rolls Program. This program allows you to purchase dollar coins at face value with no charge for shipping.

The purpose of the program is to remove barriers to the circulation of dollar coins. In theory, businesses, financial institutions, and others can order dollar coins directly from the US Mint without going through the Federal Reserve system. This would make it easier to obtain smaller amounts of dollar coins to use in transactions. The program has provided a side benefit to coin collectors who have been able to obtain rolls Presidential Dollars and Native American Dollars for face value.

The rolls can be purchased in boxes of 250 coins for the face value of $250. The coins are wrapped in rolls of 25 with 20 rolls to a box. The US Mint states that the coins are "non-numismatic, circulation-grade coins," although my own experiences and other reports suggest that most if not all of the coins are uncirculated. The wrappers are generic NF String red and white wrappers, not the red, white, and blue US Mint wrappers used for the premium priced collectors rolls.

I have periodically purchased boxes through the program. Once received, I opened the rolls to search for errors and high grade coins. Any coins I did not want to keep, I slowly spent into circulation. During my searches I found several coins that graded MS67 and a few struck through grease errors.

Other rolls currently available through the program include George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Andrew Jackson Presidential Dollars and 2009 Native American Dollars. All of the Presidential Dollars are limited to two boxes ($500), but the Native American Dolllrs have no limit.

The US Mint's Direct Ship Rolls can be found on their website here.