2011 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set
The United States Mint will begin sales of the 2011 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set tomorrow, on March 17, 2011 at 12:00 Noon ET.
The set includes the clad proof versions of the five quarters issued for this year. Each set includes the following:
2011-S Gettysburg National Military Park Quarter
2011-S Glacier National Park Quarter
2011-S Olympic National Park Quarter
2011-S Vicksburg National Military Park Quarter
2011-S Chickasaw National Recreation Area Quarter
The coins are all struck in proof format at the San Francisco Mint and carry the "S" mint mark. Each of the coins has previously been released within the 2011 Proof Set, which went on sale January 11, 2011.
Packaging for the 2011 Quarters Proof Set has changed from the prior year to match the US Mint's newly adopted branding. Each set is priced at $14.95, unchanged from the prior year. This is one of only a few of this year's products that did not have a price increase.
Since the start of the 50 State Quarters Program, the US Mint has offered a separate proof set containing all of the quarters issued for the year. For some years, the product was very popular with sales exceeding 1 million units. Recently, the popularity of the product has declined. The 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set has sold 262,163 units since going on sale May 13, 2010. This product is expected to remain on sale as the US Mint releases this year's edition of the set.
Coin Update News: US Mint Sales Report
Labels: America the Beautiful Quarters
posted by Mint News Blog @ 7:32 AM
24 Comments:
Not bad for a "no price increase" item. If you like ATB quarters and don't want to spend the extra $ for silver, not a bad choice.
I like the look of the quarters far better than the dollars found int he full clad set.
There was not a price increase in this product because it is already overpriced...
TMM
Collectors are abandoning Mint products in droves.
So sad that they are probably very happy over there that their 'total revenue' is higher (with the price increases) than last year while their total fan base is in the dumpster.
What is sad is if the mint only sold a thousand of these is they still would have "made" money on them. Less than a bucks worth of plastic and metals. So that means little incentive to improve or provide value to the collector.
What's that sound I here?
The mint's customer base shrinking another 50%.
Went from well over a million, now at 800,000 and declining......
Who said "less than a bucks worth of plastic and metals"? The coins alone are worth at least $1.25 :-) Surely you can't buy anywhere even circulating coins below their face value...
I absolutely agree with the person who said "I like the look of the quarters far better than the dollars found in the full clad set." The beauty of Nature beats portraits of dead men hands down!
The Blog's original post's accompanying weekly sales report actually made my eyes mist. If there is an obvious lull between mint offerings, in the past one would expect to see a flurry of catch up sales from collectors and dealers hungry for numismatic additions. The scarcity of reported sales underscores the opposite. Dealers may not want to order more stock which they may not have luck selling at higher prices than their already high costs. Collectors appear to continue their displeasure with the designs, subject matter, quality, and excessive over-pricing. As a consequence, collectors may have continued exiting the hobby. The mint hasn't yet acknowledged product offerings need immediate price rollbacks to reverse the draining customer base. In private industry, any company facing dramatic and massive sales declines would have done this long ago, what is the mint doing? Call it what you will but to me there's evidence a definite sales boycott in force. I fear the hobby is rapidly crumbling due to continuing jumps in excessive pricing. Instead of lowering prices to bolster sales, it seems some marketing outfit sold the mint the idea to re-brand their packaging. A bold and foolish move was made. If anything, it halted collectors in their tracks and only added fuel to sales downturns. Change a familiar box color and design, fill it with the same old contents, and jack up already too high pricing? That's a recipe for disaster during a global recession. It's a crying shame.
Sorry for being off topic, but has anyone else noticed a few single 5 oz silver ATB quarters have sold on E Bay for less than $250 down to less than $230. Granted they are usually BU or lower ms60's. Any thoughts on how low these might go??
The US Mint still have those TV coin houses buying up coins.
In most instances, re-branding is one of the last acts of desparation. Regardless of the industry, company or the product - deparate.
No different with the Mint. It doesn't matter how nicely they try to wrap a steaming pile of dung. When we take off the paper, we're still left holding an over-priced, steaming pile of dung!!
The irritating aspect of this re-branding is just how horribly intrusive it has become. Like most collectors, I expect and appreciate consistency across a product line.
For example, the first four years of the single, 4-coin Presidential Proof Sets came in colorful packaging that placed the focus on the Presidents and the Product. This year we get cold, black packaging that places all the emphasis on the Mint.
And it looks like the Mint is going to do the same thing with the Presidential Coin Covers. An ugly, intrusive black bar across what previously had been a visually appealing, product focused package. Sadly, I fear the Mint will do the same thing with the 8-coin Presidential P/D set. Still waiting to see how that plays out.
I originally had intented to accumulate some of these Presidential products for kids and grandkids; educational tools that also might peak an interest in the hobby. Now - not so much.
I already can visualize that first Saturday morning at the kitchen table. "Daddy. Why do these packages look so different? Well, Timmy. That's the look of desparation and poor decision making! Who's ready for pancakes??"
Like the majority, as the Mint puts more emphasis on "The Mint" instead of the quality and visual appeal of their products, I will continue to move away from their over-priced and, now, mostly unattractive annual offerings.
Regarding the Presidential Dollar First-Day Coin Covers, the Mint could have just put a black square in the lower right corner showing the new logo, and left the portrait size consistent with the first 16 covers. However, I don't know why they felt the need to put the logo on the front of the cover at all, seeing as how the old design did not have the old logo on it!
As soon as I saw the re-designed cover pictured on the website, I made up my mind to stop buying the series. Even if I change my mind and decide to pick it up again later, chances are I can get them cheaper on the secondary market from sellers desperate to move the over-priced covers they bought.
No WAY are the covers worth $19.95, especially with the terrible re-design!
The mint is a business which is run by the Sales and Marketing arm of that business. They (Sales & Marketing) have final approval on all designs of coins, medals, etc., and are the ones who choose what designs are eventually forwarded for review. They also set the prices, packaging and release schedule (in many cases).
The people who run Sales and Marketing are not collectors. They are Sales and Marketing people. They also forgot to learn the first rule of Sales and Marketing ... know your customer.
As they have been focused on the bottom line, they completely forgot about us, and have gone the predictable route of raising prices to offset loss of sales, which are due to the many Sales and Marketing screw-ups. This in turn drives even more collectors away, and forces then to raise prices again. Now any good executive manager will tell you, the year-end bonus and pay raise, as long with your performance review does not go well with a drop in revenue. Sales are irrelevant as long as the revenue increases.
None of the Sales & Marketing people are going to suggest a price pull back, or other such radical adjustment. That would be career suicide. Rather, they are going to suggest the illusion of increased value through rebranding, along with a continual rise in prices to justify the illusion of value.
A buck here, a buck there, and all of the sudden they are charging $75 for a mint set -- and even if they only sell a third of what they did ten years agao, they are still making more money year-over-year. Suddenly it is too expensive for the average Joe collector, and the products are re-branded yet again as Limited Premium Mint offerings for the advanced collector! Oh, and the price of clad mint sets is now north of $150 .... Just my opinion.
I'm not sure what happened with the Mint sets. For a time in the early 2000's, one could make a nice profit from selling those sets, oftentimes at least doubling your money. It all pretty much peaked with the 2004 set though. Now, despite usually having a lower-mintage every year from the prior year, the sets just don't seem to command much if any premium (with the exception of the 2008 set.) Usually they sell for several dollars LESS than issue prices. Even the awesome 2009 set (with an attractive low-mintage of just under 775,000 units and containing 8 exclusive composition Lincoln Cents), just doesn't really go anywhere. It usually sells for a few dollars more than issue price, but that money is more than eaten up by selling fees and postage.
If times were still like they were in late 2004, the 2009 sets would be selling for $100+.
FYI---A Mark Coins has a message on their website today stating they are sold out of the 2010 ATB 5oz. coin sets. Looks like APMEX might be the only one left with those sets. Wish they would sell them already.....
2011 silver eagle unc release in fall
look under silver eagle on us mint web site
"FideliTrade is continuing to offer the America the Beautiful 2010 State Park coin sets at the original price of $929.20 As of 3/11/11 we have just over 500 ATB sets available."
"Coins are of a bullion variety and will neither be encapsulated nor specially packaged. The coins may have minor scratches, abrasions, smudges, fingerprints or other imperfections."
go to shop on line at us mint then go to silver eagles
US Mint now selling those 2011 Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship Rolls – Native American- Government – Treaties with Tribal Nations (N05)
Jack Hunt hasn't sold a single set of 5 ounce ATBs to the public.
There should be a separate site for 5 ounce silver ATB junkies/flippers to keep perseverating on the availability or lack of availability of them from APs or how much the they are selling for on ebay. It is irritating to keep seeing posts on this topic derailing other posts.
I have to agree with Anon 4:01 AM. The puck stuff is old and about bullion anyway. It was interesting for a short while, not so much now.
I'm sure there will be enough talk about the numismatic version if/when they appear. This is the place for that. Too bad many will be throughly burnt out on the topic by then.
IMO... Tax Tokens.
If you look at the total mintages for all years of the state quarters, you will notice that there is about a 5 year overproduction, compared to what should have been needed based on population/demand. So the mint knew that it would produce less America the Beautiful Quarters. Now lets think about the way these new quarters were released, banks can't specifially request them (hence they are dumped with that over supply of state quarters). The cost of quarters rolls is much higher that the value of the quarters. So it seems that the mint is simply holding onto the supply of America the Beautiful Quarters as long as it can so that the maximum number of collectors pay the extra premium. In fact, they may hang onto the bulk of the suppy for 5 years then dump the rest on the market, dampening any value your quarter rolls had if you thought you were going to make money on them. I don't know if they are really hanging onto them, just a factless observation.
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