Presidential Dollar Products No Longer Available
Sales recently ended for a few of the US Mint's Presidential Dollar products. This includes last year's annual Proof Set and the bags and rolls for the James Monroe Dollars.
The 2009 Presidential Dollar Proof Set is no longer available. This set first went on sale February 10, 2009 priced at $14.95 each. The set contains the four different Presidential Dollars for that year featuring William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor.
The set has sold 627,925 units as of the last available weekly sales report. This is lower than the final reported sales for the 2008 set, which came in at 860,172.
I had actually expected sales of this set to end on February 11, 2010 when sales of the 2010 Presidential Dollar Proof Set began. Recently, it had been the US Mint's practice to end sales for the previous year's annual set offerings once the current year version went on sale. Does this signify that the practice will no loner be used?
Another group of products which recently moved to "sold out" status are the 2008 James Monroe Dollar 25-coin rolls and 250-coin bags from the Philadelphia or Denver Mints. These products went on sale way back on February 14, 2008 as the fifth release of the Presidential Dollar series.
The last reported sales for these products were 50,652 of the 25-coin (P) rolls, 49,399 of the 25-coin (D) rolls, 1,053 of the 250-coin (P) bags, and 565 of the 250-coin (D) bags.
An interesting aside related to the James Monroe Dollars- shortly before the circulation release and start of bags and rolls sales, tens of thousands of the dollar coins had been struck on copper-nickel clad planchets intended for quarters were discovered. The errors were found during the coin wrapping process by a private contractor of the US Mint. According to US Mint statements, all of the errors were collected and returned to the US Mint. To date, there have been no reports of any of the Monroe Dollars struck on quarter planchets ever surfacing.
Labels: Presidential Dollars
posted by Mint News Blog @ 11:14 AM
16 Comments:
Who fell asleep at the presses not to notice tens of thousand coins produced on the wrong material. Don't they know what products they make? Are they all color blind? Did the night shift just load up the presses, set it running and then went out to the local bar.
Want to bet someone still let some slip through. If the floor manager can't do thier job then the Mint should find people who can. There are enough skilled people out of work who can replace them.
Didn't the Mint have a hiring freeze at some point during this recession? These types of processes need multiple eyes on it. But then on the other hand, the assembly line process itself needs to be set up so that each individual has just one job to do. But I'm sure with the economics, they have each person doing a number of different jobs... and with the lack of any extra people to help with verifying the processes are running smooth, this kind of thing seems 'bound' to happen.
This goes out to Toyota as well! :-)
Yeah, every time I get behind the wheel of my 2010 Camry, I'm just waiting for it to wig out and try to kill me! And we all thought "The Terminator" was far-fetched! :)
Seriously though, how cool would it have been to find one of those James Monroe dollars struck on quarter planchet errors? Why was their existence even publicized at all? If the Mint is so "embarrassed" by these errors, you'd think they'd try to keep it as quiet as possible. It's like a slap in the face to say "Yeah, we made gobs of what would have been valuable errors to collectors, but we recalled them all and destroyed them!" Talk about dangling the carrot down to us and snatching it away!
"Does this signify that the practice will no longer be used?"
Hahaha - how funny! The Mint has a "practice?" That's a good one.
I implore all readers never to trust the Mint to develop any pattern. Again, for those who missed it: Buy what you want when you can. Don't wait to see if any pattern develops.
Do you think it would be worth the effort to go through my wrapped coin rolls of James Monroe?
Maybe some were missed...
Too bad they didn't just have a special auction like the Post office did with their Cowboy misprints...
Some commenter above thought the errors might be the result of a hiring freeze. Please rethink that idea. The federal employees all got big raises cost of living and many got bonuses. Hiring freeze? Not likely. The federal government is one of the if not the fastest growing employer and has suffered no layoffs, freezes, wage decreases or any other problems the private sector has. Best way to become a millionaire is to become a congress person.
As per the hiring freeze, YES, there was.
http://quantumpranx.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/u-s-mint-plans-huge-output-reduction/
A number of other coin outlets reported this as well. So, for much facts, hey?
Please leave your political talking points (left or right) at the door.
If there was a hiring freeze then that must mean that those who work there have been there for awhile. How long does a person have to work there to know the differance between a silver colored planchet and a golden colored one? How could anyone look at the golden dollars and not notice they were not golden? Every step of the way screams out that no one was looking at what was being produced for hours.
or maybe they just done care
If they didn't care, they never would have gone to the trouble of recalling and destroying the errors.
Either that, or they simply don't mind wasting thousands of planchets and then going to the trouble and expense of destroying them.
I agree with the special auction for errors. Just imagine the dent that they could put in the deficit if they put a couple of those up on fleabay. Heck, they could intentially accidentally make some errors. This is a much better idea than Clinton's "lets sell all of our military bases" idea
I started purchasing Presidential $250 bags but it didn't take too long before I just couldn't do it any more.
I am certain that they are taking them off to make room for new offerings and that there are still plenty of Presidential bags that could be sold.
It would be a good idea to hold a clearance sale and discount the items some rather than put them back into storage or melt them down.
JA
I recently received the 2010 pres. proof set.I would like to know what the is going so wrong at mint?? I had to send it back because of numerous flaws not only the coins but so much tiny particles of paper inside plastic case. I just can not believe it! I have sent back more coins in the last year and half than the prior 15.These are Proofs not run of the mill coins or are they?
I actualy have a silver colored monroe dollar does anyone know what its worth? im having trouble finding any information on it, if you have any please post
If authentic, this could be a very significant find. A number of Monroe Dollars were struck on planchets intended for quarters, but all were believed to be recaptured.
Can you send an image and further details to me at coins@live.com?
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