Lower Silver Prices Causes U.S. Mint Reduces Prices On Several Silver Coins For Very First Time

Oct. 11, 2011 - PRLog -- Maybe it just comes using the territory when you are the world’s largest coin dealer, but the U.S. Mint just can’t seem get a break from coin collectors and investors regardless of what it does. Choose up any leading print coin publication, or read the standard coin blog or other on-line comments from collectors, and critiques of the Mint are nearly usually the dominant topic. To make sure, there are lots of locations in which the Mint could do a better job like by updating its website to better deal with high volume periods, and by implementing some type of real-time or once each day update of the prices of coins whose value rises and falls with altering precious metal markets. Go to http://silver-dollar-values.com for profitable investing ideas.

The recent increase in volatility of those markets has been a real challenge for the Mint. In the absence of a more flexible pricing structure, it'll continue to face the risk that the altering worth of metals will make its prices obsolete. But this situation has also provided buyers who are paying attention with some good opportunities. For example, right now the 2011-W American platinum eagle, which sports one of the most stunning designs ever to grace a U.S. coin, is priced in the lowest level ($1792) since it was released earlier this year. That's because platinum is priced less than gold at the moment. Before the 2008 financial crisis platinum was trading well over $2,000 an ounce.

Usually gold and platinum numismatic goods sold on the Mint’s web site are re-priced once a week on Wednesday based on a combination of the average metal price during the prior week and the London pm closing metal price on Wednesday. During the summer the Mint had to suspend sales of its gold $5 commemoratives, as I explained in an earlier column, because the melt content material of the coins was approaching their retail sale price. Go to http://silver-dollar-values.net for profitable investing ideas.

In response to this scenario, the Mint developed a pricing grid for gold commemorative coins similar to the one used for other numismatic products. This has allowed the Mint to re-price these coins weekly rather than have to stop selling them for weeks.

In the past several months a number of silver products have also noticed their sales suspended because of rising silver prices. Then in late September, when silver declined significantly, the Mint suspended sales of several silver coins so that it could re-price them at lower levels. It didn't do this in the spring when silver also declined sharply. On October 7, the Mint re-listed those silver coin products at new, lower prices. This was, as far as we can remember, the first time the Mint has lowered prices on silver coins.

One would think coin buyers would be pleased with the new prices and also the opportunity to save some money, particularly since precious metal prices are back on the upswing now. Furthermore, you will need to keep in mind that under existing law, the Mint needs to publish notices in the Federal Register when re-pricing silver goods. It would clearly be preferable for coin buyers and the Mint to have a real-time or at least every day price update, but moving towards such a system is some thing that will not happen overnight and that would probably require the approval of Congress, which tends to move very slowly.

Coin buyers claim the Mint is desperate to unload the silver coins that were re-priced, namely the new 2011-W burnished American silver eagles, proof silver eagles, and numismatic versions of the five-ounce America the Stunning Coins. The ATB releases had been reduced by $50 a coin, and the eagles by about $10 every. Moreover, other world mints like those in Canada, Australia, and Germany price their numismatic offerings substantially higher than does the U.S. Mint or reduce their silver content to compensate for rising silver prices.

You will find plenty of other challenges facing the Mint. One of them is the fact that in the past year or so there appears to have been a discernible decline in the high quality of some of the numismatic goods the Mint sells. The majority of coins sold by the Mint continue to be of high quality, but there has been a troubling reduce in high quality control of some coins, which includes some commemorative issues and others. Go to http://www.silver-dollar-values.com for profitable investing ideas.

An example will be the 2011-W burnished American gold eagle, which is the first burnished gold coin sold by the Mint since 2008. For some reason many examples of this coin have surface issues, particularly in the breast region on Miss Liberty. We went to two of the U.S. Mint’s sales counters a couple months ago to examine this coin and was shocked that the majority had such issues. We had to go through each coin they had to locate one that we were really satisfied with. We have read that many people have had to return this coin numerous occasions.

Consumer service is also an region where the Mint has received a lot of criticism. There's no question that in the past it has been nearly impossible to reach a live representative throughout busy periods, but that appears to have improved a great deal in the past year.

Perhaps the single greatest region for improvement, in our view, will be the distribution of circulating coins, especially quarters and dollars. This is something that is truly hurting the future of the hobby because it turns off younger collectors and others new to numismatics. It's a real shame that collectors of quarters and dollar coins are forced to buy them at marked up prices from dealers or the Mint, when the coins should be readily available from banks and in change. The Mint clearly needs to function using the Federal Reserve and the Congress to create a distribution system for these coins that works, and this should be a leading priority of the Mint.

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