US Mint Last Opportunity for 2009 Products
Today, the United States Mint announced the upcoming discontinuation of sales for certain 2009 products. A "Last Opportunity" section has been added to the US Mint's online product catalog to showcase these products in their final days.
On June 15, 2010, sales will end for the following products:
2009 Proof Set
2009 Silver Proof Set
2009 Mint Set
2009 "Professional Life" Lincoln Cent Two Roll Set
2009 "Presidency" Lincoln Cent Two Roll Set
The end of sales for the 2009 Proof Set, 2009 Silver Proof Set, and 2009 Mint Set may come as somewhat of a surprise. Generally, unless there is an early sell out, these annual sets have remained on sale until the release date for the current year version of the set. The 2010 Proof Set and Mint Set are currently scheduled to go on sale on July 15 and 22; and the 2010 Silver Proof Set is scheduled to go on sale in August/September.
I believe that the reason behind the "early" end of sales for these sets is the inclusion of the 2009 Lincoln Cents struck in 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc. The use of this special composition was originally authorized by the Presidential $1 Coin Act, which stated: "The Secretary of the Treasury shall issue 1-cent coins in 2009 with the exact metallic content as the 1-cent coin contained in 1909..."
Someone must have realized that the wording "in 2009" would have meant that the US Mint could not "issue" (i.e. sell) any of the annual sets containing the special 2009 Lincoln Cents after December 31, 2009.
A technical amendment was slipped into the Girl Scouts USA Centennial Commemorative Coin Act, which provided "the Secretary of the Treasury may continue to issue numismatic items that contain 1-cent coins minted in 2009 after December 31, 2009, until not later than June 30, 2010." This bill was signed into law on October 29, 2009, allowing the sets to be offered for an additional six months into the new year.
Notably, the 2009 Mint Set originally went on sale October 1, 2009, following a delay related to tarnish issues. With sales ending on June 15, 2010, the set will have only been available for sale for nine and a half months.
On June 30, 2010, sales will end for the following products:
2009 District of Columbia Quarter First Day Coin Cover
2009 Puerto Rico Quarter First Day Coin Cover
2009 Guam Quarter First Day Coin Cover
2009 American Samoa Quarter First Day Coin Cover
2009 U.S. Virgin Islands Quarter First Day Coin Cover
2009 Northern Mariana Islands Quarter First Day Coin Cover
These six First Day Coin Covers will actually represent the last appearance of the product for quarters for the foreseeable future. The US Mint has stated that they will not be offering the covers for the new America the Beautiful Quarters series.
Frequent commenter on this site Lasloo has actually created his own First Day Coin Cover for the Hot Springs National Park Quarter and plans to create additional covers for the remaining America the Beautiful Quarters. I have received a few of these and can attest that they are very well done. I previously wrote an article about the Hot Springs First Day Covers on Coin Update or you can find some of the covers listed for sale on eBay.
As the end of sales draws closer for the products included in the US Mint's Last Opportunity sale, I will revisit some of them with additional thoughts, stats, and comparisons.
Labels: US Mint
posted by Mint News Blog @ 9:53 AM
21 Comments:
Looks like they can change the "law" whenever they want, so...
The mint may have to raise prices of gold again next week it this trend continues! If the mint made a quality 10 ct Diamond Eagle for $100,000.00 with only 100 minted would you buy it? Point being if they don't make fractionals of gold and platinum for across all collectible products, most American will not afford to collect!
They should make fractional Buffs and Plats. First spouse should have a silver option or a quarter ounce option. CHANGE THE LAW to make this happen! This is getting ridiculous!
Michael, do you know if the mint will end both Letitia and Julia Tyler First spouse gold coins on June 3rd when the Jane Pierce coin goes on sale? Or do you think the mint will continue sales for both Tyler coins until their respective one year anniverary - which was 7/2/09 for the Letitia Tyler and 8/6/09 for the Julia Tyler coin. Any information you can provide will be appreciated.
I doubt Julia will go off sale June 3, which would mean it would have only been offered for sale for less than 10 mos. when it is supposed to be offered for a year. But this is the mint, so who knows.
high break the all time record high at $1,249.60 an ounce. what will be the next figure?.
amazingly....
"Michael, do you know if the mint will end both Letitia and Julia Tyler First spouse gold coins on June 3rd when the Jane Pierce coin goes on sale?"
I will see if I can get an answer to this question. Personally, I think they would just end Letitia on June 3 (or whenever Jane Pierce is released), but I will try confirm for sure.
I actually think this is a good opportunity to snatch up some additional mint sets before they go off sale.
I believe the inclusion of the Lincoln pennies will ensure these sets hold their value. However, these are probably the highest selling items therefore, they will not suffer from scarcity.
JA
There have been a LOT of the 2009 Uncirculated Mint Sets broken up to sell the copper pennies as singles and rolls. While not a rare set by sales numbers alone, the number of INTACT sets available on the secondary market after sellout may be smaller than you would think.
It's probably worth picking up a few sets just in case. You've probably wasted more money on scratch-off lottery tickets than what it would cost to buy 5-10 of these sets. At least this way, you will still have something to show for your money!
May 12, 2010 12:50 PM poster.
That's a very good point. I did not realize to the extent you described. Thanks.
JA
I would wager that the Jane Pierce coins will be pushed back to later in June or even early July anyway. The Mint just MIGHT end both Tyler coins on the day the Pierce coins go on sale, especially if the delay happens. 11 months is just as close to "approximately one year" as 13 months is (which is the length of time the Louisa Adams coins were offered for sale.)
I can't see the Mint just ending the Julia Tyler coins on some arbitrary date around the one-year mark, nor can I see them leaving them available all the way until the Buchanan's Liberty coins go on sale. No, it seems to me when trying to apply "Mint logic" to the situation that the perfect time to end the Tyler spouse coins (both designs) would be when the next current year coin goes on sale. That will then get the pattern back on track of only having 4 designs for sale at one time.
Of course, I could be wrong. I hope Michael is able to get a definitive answer on this subject. Although, it would have helped secondary market sales of the Julia Tyler coins if the Mint DID end them with Letitia and no one was expecting it. Situations like that usually sound like this: Cha-Ching!
When all is said and done there will be ten times as many 09 unc sets as there are UHRs (now off sale for quite a while). UHR has done ok (not great). So get some unc sets, but the volume may make them like 2000 silver proof sets.....not great "investments".
Actually, it will surprise me if the number of 2009 Uncirculated Mint Sets reaches 800,000. It will be one of the lower-minted sets of the past couple of decades, and the fact that it contains the copper pennies should give it an advantage when it comes to holding value. It certainly won't make anyone rich, but it shouldn't be a money-losing DOG like the 2005-2007 sets are!
If you think that any of the 2009 US proof or mint sets will be rare, you're simply fooling yourselves.
All the posts here are from speculators. No one can always accurately predict the market. You win some and you lose some....
If the Mint was really smart, they would lower bloated sales prices on those unsold and over-produced unwanted items and clear out the stock bins. Every forward operating business does this. When will the Mint modernize and wise up? Nah, they'd rather destroy stock or wholesale them to special dealers distributors. You doubt it? I don't.
Just my opinion but...the 2009 Unc. Mint Set is more unique than any this century or any likely to be for many, many years with the Lincoln anniversary out of the way. Real copper cents with four unique attractive reverses and the final (and lowest mintage) state quarters. This is truly a must have collectible for now and anytime. It's the kind of set that will be written up in some future coin blogs after it's been sorta forgotten about. I think that the '08 set is doing well and is not nearly as interesting. I do like the '05 set (which hasn't done well) based on the westward nickles but '09 tops all.
Jim L.
Once our country goes bankrupt these mint sets will be worth about as much as a Widows Mite coin, next to nothing.
This country will never go bankrupt because Americans will never stop working. We all need to look around us and marvel at the creativity of our coins, our culture, and our credos. Oh! and lest I forget: I am a hard working immigrant from India. My hours: 6 am to 10 pm each day!
The Soviet Union went bankrupt and so can we. I wish that wasn't the case but we can not spend like were are and stay solvent. So these mint sets will be like old Soviet coins, a reminder of what use to be a United States.
On the subject of the 2009 unc set. Don't forget that the unc set also has the satin finish which will make it rarer. Any one who wants to have a complete set of pennies will need those to complete it. With less then a million sets there will be alot of collectors who will never be able to get them.
While we will never be able to strike it rich from them I'm pretty sure that my grandchildren will get alot more from them them.
I will not buy ANYTHING sold by Lasloo (ebay: GREANMONKEY), considering many of his comments on this blog.
He seems to be more interested in making money off of collectors than he is in promoting the hobby.
Plus his comments posted on this blog in general are a total turn off.
Sorry Lasloo, but you will never get me to buy anything from you. And especially with an ebay name like greanmonkey?????
I like your site :) -refer to it often even though I pretty much stopped collecting from Mint.
In my opinion, everything they've done since the 20th anniversary SE Eagles is boring and the excitement came from the mintage numbers and reverse proof.
...with the exception of the 2009 High Relief Eagle I remain disappointed in the Mint and have not purchased since the HR Eagle.
Regarding the comments about Lasloo:
I respectfully disagree. He is a good guy. I've e-mailed him back and forth quite a bit, since I was the one who helped him get the Hot Springs April 19th cancellations for his coin covers, and I will also be getting the Yellowstone June 1st cancellations for him as well.
His first-day coin covers are very nice, and you don't know how hard he works on those and how much time he puts into them. He also offers them for sale at a very fair price for all the time and effort that goes into them. Buyers often fail to consider just how much eBay and their minion PayPal takes from sellers in fees, now more than ever (a combined 11.9%). Plus, the way so many buyers expect free shipping these days, the eBay fee applies to the ENTIRE amount the seller receives. The amount in an auction that is designated as shipping is excluded from the eBay final value fee percentage, but sellers seldom get to capitalize on that policy now since if they have a shipping charge they are often treated as an "eBay Leper."
There ARE a lot of comments posted here that don't have a good vibe to them, and some users tend to be downright abusive. However, Lasloo is not one of those users. Plus, at least he has the guts to post under an identity instead of the much safer "Anonymous" most tend to use (yourself included.)
One final note regarding the eBay userid name. Most eBay users try to come up with something unique and catchy when creating a userid. I'm sure there is some kind of backstory to that name. Maybe I'll ask him next time I send an e-mail.
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