United States Mint Braille Education Set
The United States Mint will offer the Braille Education Set on October 8, 2009 at 12:00 Noon ET.
The set includes one uncirculated 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar, materials related to the Braille system of writing for the blind and visually impaired, and an example of readable Braille. The set comes in a tri-fold binder and is limited to 25,000 units.The Education Set is offered at $44.95 with an ordering limit of one per household. This ordering limit will be in effect for an initial 30 day period, after which it will be re-evaluated. The uncirculated 2009 Louis Braille Silver Dollar, which is contained in the set, still remains available for sale individually, priced at $33.95 with no ordering limits.
Over the years, the US Mint has offered numerous special sets for commemorative coins, which incorporate objects or materials related to the program. The most successful sets in terms of secondary market performance have been those which include a specially minted coin. Examples of this are the 1998 Robert F. Kennedy Set which included a matte proof Kennedy Half Dollar, or the 1993 Thomas Jefferson and 1997 Botanical Gardens Sets which included matte proof Jefferson Nickels. Other sets can sometimes be difficult to locate, but usually don't carry big premiums.
Since this set does not have any unique coins, its potential is curtailed. However, there has been a recent trend for collectors to pay premiums for specially packaged US Mint collectibles with small production runs. At 25,000 units, this set might fall into this category, but in my opinion this should be more than enough to go around.
This Education Set should serve to revive sales of the Braille commemorative coins, which have been moving slowly in recent months. The table below shows the most recent sales figures for the Louis Braille Commemorative Silver Dollars. There is a maximum mintage of 400,000 coins across all product options.
| Louis Braille Commemorative Coin Sales | |
| Proof | 123,556 |
| Uncirculated | 45,592 |
| Uncirculated (Easy-Open) | 20,648 |
| Total | 189,796 |
Over on Coin Update News, we are now reporting weekly US Mint sales figures for their current product offerings. The reports will be posted early each week and cross referenced from Mint News Blog. Check out the full US Mint sales report for 10/4/09.
Labels: Commemorative Coins
posted by Mint News Blog @ 6:06 AM
6 Comments:
Shouldn't the Mint stop productions on UHR already? Sales have got to top 100K soon and anyone who wants one shld have gotten one by now; shouldn't they stop producing this UHR and allocate the blanks to other gold coins like uncirculated/proof buff
Only 25,000 units? Dang! I had better get one.
I heard that the packaging for this coin is actually made with toilet paper used by Braille himself. That ought to sell a few more. I wonder if I can get a job at the Mint.
This one might be a sleeper, we will see.
I was told that sales are relatively slow for the Braille Education set. That does not surprise me. The coin itself has a poor design and it's clear that collector demand is low. The US Mint needs better designs.
The coin was not that popular but with the lack of stuff at the mint and the unique packaging, this will do well I think.
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