Launching today, March 27 at noon ET, are the first curved coins ever struck by the United States Mint. Highly anticipated and available at introductory prices are the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins in denominations of $5 gold, $1 silver and 50c clad.
Celebrating the 75th or diamond anniversary of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, each curved coin is available in numismatic qualities of proof and uncirculated for a total of six product options.
Note: This coin news article includes design details, prices, U.S. Mint ordering options and several images of the coins. An article published two weeks ago offers many more coin images that may help further in a buying decision.
Baseball Coin Designs and Curved Shapes
Obverses or heads side of the commemorative coins depict Cassie McFarland’s winning baseball glove design with National Baseball Hall of Famers Joe Morgan, Brooks Robinson, Ozzie Smith, Don Sutton, and Dave Winfield among the judges.
Her rendition inspired by a well-loved and well-used family glove competed against 177 other designs in a public contest outlined by law. Inscriptions within the glove read: LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and the year of issue, 2014. The glove design also highlights the concavity of the coins.
Gracing the reverse or tails side of each coin is Don Everhart’s depiction of a baseball. Reverses are convex in shape, and include inscriptions of UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM and either FIVE DOLLARS, ONE DOLLAR or HALF DOLLAR.
Everhart sculpted his and McFarland’s design so they could be scanned and cut into metal hubs and then dies. These dies are placed inside coining presses at the U.S. Mints in Philadelphia, West Point, Denver and San Francisco so they can strike incoming metal discs called planchets and create the baseball commemoratives.
Prices for the National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins
Mintages, introductory prices and regular prices for the six coins are:
| Mintages | Introductory Prices | Regular Prices | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proof 50c Clad Half-Dollar | 750,000 | $19.95 | $23.95 |
| Uncirculated 50c Clad Half-Dollar | $18.95 | $22.95 | |
| Proof Silver Dollar | 400,000 | $51.95 | $56.95 |
| Uncirculated Silver Dollar | $47.95 | $52.95 | |
| Proof $5 Gold Coins | 50,000 | $424.75 | $429.75 |
| Uncirculated $5 Gold Coins | $419.75 | $424.75 |
The listed mintages are the maximum number of curved coins that may be produced. Laws about commemorative coins tend to be very generous with these totals. In reality, the U.S. Mint will only produce enough coins to fulfill demand, and only sell them through to the end of 2014.
Also, pricing is static for the silver and clad coins but it may change every Wednesday for two gold coins. Current prices are based on a weekly average of the London gold fixing that sits within $1,350.00 to $1,399.99 an ounce. Every $50 movement outside that range, up or down, will result in a $12.15 adjustment in the price of the gold coins.
Introductory pricing ends on April 28, 2014 at 5 p.m. ET, when regular pricing takes effect. Buyers will then have to pay $4 more for each clad half-dollar and $5 more for each silver and gold coin.
Finally, prices include surcharges of $35 for each gold coin, $10 for each silver dollar, and $5 for each half-dollar. These amounts are paid to the National Baseball Hall of Fame to help fund its operations.
Ordering, Limits and Online Waiting Room
When released at noon ET, any or all the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins may be ordered from the U.S. Mint online store.
U.S. Mint Page for Ordering Commemoratives
Also, orders are accepted at 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468), while hearing- and speech-impaired customers with TTY equipment may order at 1-888-321-MINT.
In addition to the mintage limits discussed earlier, the U.S. Mint has also implemented household ordering limits of:
- 50 for each of the $5 gold coins,
- 100 for each of the silver dollars, and
- 100 for each of the clad half-dollars
These amounts may later change.
"These coins commemorate important aspects of American history and culture, so we want to make sure a maximum number of customers have an opportunity to purchase this coin," said U.S. Mint Deputy Director Dick Peterson. "We will evaluate these ordering limits on a regular basis and adjust or remove them accordingly," Peterson added.
Due to the large demand expected, the U.S. Mint will also turn on its "Online Waiting Room." The Mint offered these reminders about its waiting room feature.
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Customers can enter the waiting room to ‘get in line’ to enter the website and make their purchase, and the waiting room will tell customers how long they have to wait before entering the catalog website.
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While in the waiting room, they may open other tabs in their browser or another browser window to visit other websites.
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Customers also will have the option to leave and come back later to shop when there is less traffic on the site.
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They will be informed that they will lose their place in line if they close the waiting room browser window to leave the waiting room.
Coin Specifications and Compositions
Design requirements, coin denominations, major specifications and how many can be made are all outlined by the National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act, Public Law 112-152, which was enacted on Aug. 3, 2012. The following tables offer major technical details for each type of coin.
| Weight: | 8.359 grams nominal |
| Composition: | 90% gold, 10% alloy |
| Mintage Limit: | 50,000 across all product options |
| Height of Dome: | 0.085 inches |
| Mint Marks: | ‘W’ for West Point – Proof and Uncirculated |
| Weight: | 26.73 grams nominal |
| Composition: | 90% silver, 10% copper |
| Mintage Limit: | 400,000 across all product options |
| Height of Dome: | 0.150 inches |
| Mint Marks: | ‘P’ for Philadelphia – Proof and Uncirculated |
| Weight: | 11.34 grams nominal |
| Composition: | 92% copper, 8% nickel |
| Mintage Limit: | 750,000 across all product options |
| Height of Dome: | 0.058 inches |
| Mint Marks: | ‘D’ for Denver Mint, Uncirculated; ‘S’ for San Francisco Mint, Proof |
As the tables show, the commemorative coins each have different dome heights — 0.150 inches (3.81 mm) for the $1 silver dollars, 0.085 inches (2.159 mm) for the $5 gold coins and 0.058 inches (1.4732 mm) for the 50c clad coins.
These heights came from trial and error. It was easiest for silver dollars to have a higher dome since they have a larger diameter and more metal to flow and fill into the designs during striking. The half-dollar was the most difficult. Sizes, compositions and die life all contributed to the eventual dome height specifications.
I took off work to come home because I knew this was going to be one of those hot commodities like the 25th anniversary walking liberty coin set. I too was sent to the waiting room like the Bad Boy for being late to class. Wait! Late !? hell I attempted to log on at 12 noon “Do not log out or you will lose your place in line”. OK! Then the window counting down from 1 minute 38 seconds, when it got to 32 seconds it jumped back to 38 minutes. “WHAT !!!! ?” Then it started counting down,… Read more »
Yeah I ordered the household max of 50 gold proofs, then 50 gold uncirculated, then the 100 silver proofs, then again the 100 silver uncirculated, after all I wanted the free shopping bag.
I waited over 3 hours to order. This waiting room thing is a farce. They cant build a fricken web site just like Obama care. I had friend who were getting on line and getting 30 minute a wait but I had signed on befor them at 12:20 and had a 2 hour 48 minute wait. But the worst of it I had two people who could just go directly on line AND THERE WAS NO WAIT. The government sets up a big scam for themselves. Who would admit that they didn’t have a waiting room? How many could compare… Read more »
“Hold” status
Hold means that the mint is taking the action to review and process your order.
Order Status: Your order request is in process. Ship date 3/30. Guess it will ship soon 🙂
Hay ART do not count on it my order shipping date has change from March 29 to April 11 to April 4 and back to March 29 and now to March 30th it will change again they have to fill all the orders for coin shows on TV & PCGS/NGC and all bulks orders.
Well, The Dealers and the Coin Flippers are the clear winners here with the HIGH initial household order amounts! Why did the Mint do this when they have made such efforts in the recent past to make Collectors happy by initially limiting Household orders to One on Gold and Silver Coins? 50 for Gold coins on this issue?? We would have been happy with a Minimum of 5!! The Silver will be the next to sell out, similar to the Silver Buffalo Commemorative coins did. This will just further infuriate collectors and I give a BIG “Strike One” for the… Read more »
RonnieBGood you mean the maximum of 5 :-). That would of been good for small collectors like me.
Did anyone see on Saturday that HSN coin show in the morning and evening that they were selling the one Dollar silver proof for $ 179.95 & uncirculated for $169.95 & Clad Half for $89.95 all in a 70 Grade. The U.S.MINT & HSN worked out a deal. The U.S.MINT sold the coins in mass Qty. to HSN And other TV Coin Shows. And this Monday night HSN will be selling the five Dollar Gold in a 70 Grade. It is like I said it is all about making money.
Greg D – Yes, I saw that. And did you notice the huge quantity being offered with a slabbed 70 grade? How many did HSN get to buy in order to get 2014 “perfect” coins? I guess household limits only apply to the “hoi polloi”. HSN has their coins, meanwhile our ship dates keep getting bumped back. Very disappointing.
Greg D:
Rather than write a response to Coin News, you and anyone else should forward your complaint to the US Treasury
Office of Inspector General
OIGCounsel@oig.treas.gov
or 202-927-0650
or:
pauletta.wyatt@usmint.treas.gov
Pauletta Wyatt
801 Ninth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20220
also send correspondence to your local congressperson or Senator.
LUCKY DUCK HSN got the coins before they went on sale on Thursday and HSN bought up around 25% of the mintage of the Silver Dollars & 15% of the Gold coin mintage. Do not buy Coins from the U.S.MINT when they create all the hype. Wait until after Baseball season is over then you will see the prices come down drastically.This 70 graded coins are not accurate it takes three days to properly grade them & slab the coins.
Unless your a coin dealer or one of the lucky first 100 your getting a gold coin. I honestly think the whole let give the public a right to buy the gold coins is a scam, because think about this, I ordered and got my order in quick by 12:40 or sooner but my gold has been back ordered 4 times the date has changed, my gut feeling is telling me they are fullfilling the coin dealer order and not this whole of first come first serve they claim to be using because by ordered jumped from being fullfilled by… Read more »
This whole preselling to HSN is BS, didnt they even say no resales would occur, than you watch HSN with all the slabbed coins, tell me its not a punch a wall moment because how do they have the coins before public, its total bullshit. THE US MINT should do how the Canadian mint does stuff if your a master elite you get to purchase coins before they go public as a vip master elite, this whole preferential treatment to dealers is not right, they should set up a system for VIP or master purchase which are public similar to… Read more »
Backordered gold coins mean you get whats left over after all the dealers are done and if you lucky your spot is first come first serve on waiting list, if you didnt buy bulk the mint doesnt care about you small order compared to the dealers and kickbacks they probably get
NJMANGA The best thing to do is to cancel your order this is what is going on. This has all been setup to rip all of the people off like all of our Government Agencies.
Check out this video of a guy who went to us mint the day of the sale, he actually went in person
TO HELL WITH THE U.S.MINT AND HSN AND ALL OF THE BULL SHIT!!!!
Nice video.
On ebay yesterday morning Saturday March 29, 2014 @ 06:23:32 AM PDT, a 2014-W National Baseball Hall of Fame Gold Proof Five Dollar Coin sold for $748.00. The gold proof coin’s introductory price was $424.75 from the U.S. Mint. That translates to a quick windfall profit of $323.25 (i.e., 76.1% Gain) in just three days.
David H I should just talk to a wall what done is done.
EBAY IS FLOODED WITH THE GOLD COINS
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xnational+baseball+coin&_nkw=national+baseball+coin&_sacat=0&_from=R40
If you guys were smart, You would ALL cancel your orders placed to the u.s. mint.
It’s ALL MONEY and ALL B.S. Glad i didn’t buy any of these rip-off coins. 90% gold????? Are you kidding me? 90% silver???? Are you kidding me. Personally, I think they are ugly.
stop buying from the u.s. mint. even if it sold out. later on. the price drop to near bullion value. check older issues which it sold out before.and now what happen …..
The mint told me that they did not sell out of the gold proof until about 9:30 pm eastern time march 27th. All orders before then should be good.
50,000 for a gold commemorative is a lot of coins compared to what has recently sold. They are in demand now. That is because of all the people buying to make a quick buck. Demand should die down someday and if you are patient, the coins should be available reasonably at some point. I am amazed that the low minted gold commems don’t bring a whole lot right now. Maybe the subject isn’t as popular, but mintages used to mean everything. I think they will again someday. Sell your baseball ones for a profit now and buy some from the… Read more »
Change one! Gold coins changed from 6/15/14 to 6/19/14 .
Silver and clad coins from 4/10/14 to 4/14/14.
That is for the clad Unc Half Dollar. Nothing was said about the clad Proof Half Dollar. I wonder if it has been sent to where ever the Malaysian airliner is? 🙂
I phoned the US Mint today and was told that all orders placed by people who entered the website before Noon will be canceled and this will open up availability of more coins in which you can wait months to receive while all the Coin dealer fraudsters and ebay shysters are advertising them in hand and ready to ship for hefty mark ups. I expect Monaco rare Coins will discover an additional 100,000 or so in a hidden crevice at the US Mint. Were all being duped here. These are not legally coins because coins are flat also. Personally, i… Read more »
@Senza..I have been calling the mint for 4 days to talk to them about another issue and I get a busy signal. Thinking their phone is out of order or they are still receiving HOF order request. Not sure what to think..;)
@Blue I had all circuits busy first 3 tries but the 4th attempt and about 15 minutes on hold once connected did the trick.
Did I read that correctly?????
We are also being charged a $35.00 premium which goes directly to the HOF.
50000 X $35.00 = $1,750,000.00 Kinda like Wall Street, all the insiders get wealthy and were left holding the bag or the coin.
If you like the baseball coins, get ready for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins in 2017. Perhaps they may be shaped like a football.
The U.S. Mint’s website now shows the gold baseball coins as being Sold Out.
The only good reason to have these coins is to do a quick flip.
Yes – Make that a “maximum” of 5 Gold coins per household. Sorry, I was blinded by rage. Anyone paying close to $750 in aftermarket for one of these gold baseball coins will lose money unless gold goes up significantly. The same for all of the other gold commem’s. They do not resell at a decent markup even with low mintages unless pushed up by the price of gold. And remember these are 90% gold content. As for the 2017 Pro Football Hall of Fame coins to come… Since when does Pro Football need a subsidized handout? I think I… Read more »
Last night on one of the TV Coin Shows was selling the $5.00 Gold Baseball coins in a MS 70 Grade for $3′ 999.00 plus $9.95 Shipping. You can buy 3oz. of 24k for that price. Gold would have to go up to $40′ 000. an oz. for you to break even.
OMG!!!!! Greg,That is probably being sold by hsn ( home shopping network.)
That is the LAST place you buy ANYTHING from. Biggest rip-off artists of all time, And doesn’t even understand the coin business.. Oh lord, The poor folks that get ripped off by that company and they don’t even know what the’re buying.
No Joe#2 it was Coin shop Show
I don’t think that the 50,000 limit on the Mintage for the Gold coins were a bad idea. It was a great idea. Look at the Reverse Proof Buffalo’s mintage of around 47,000. By limiting the mintage it caused demand and increased the desire for collectors thus a sellout. This is fine but what we don’t like is the way this was sold. A Maximum of 5 vs. 50 would give the average collector a much better chance of getting a Gold coin and the Mint can still be assured of a sellout. The dealers can still use their tricks… Read more »
JOE#2 The Coin Shop had them Graded by NGC
Gentlemen
The secret to selling almost anything is jacking the price way up and finding people who have more money than common sense.
A man told his wife to get rid of all the kittens they had but the wife didn’t want to get rid of them. She placed an add listing these kittens at $1000.00 a peace thinking they would never sell. Low and behold she sold everyone breaking her heart but making a wad. Enough said…
Oh, o.k. Greg. I’m not familiar with that coin show, But stay away from ALL t.v. coin shows..
To make these coins ONLY 90 percent gold is insane. A lot of collectors , Like myself only collect .9999. And silver .999, Not 90%.. The U.S. Mint has a long long way to go to equal to Perth And Canada.
Good point Blue…
JOE#2 That what everyone should do stay away from all TV Coin Shows
Hope all of you early birds went back and double checked your orders, since the US Mint canceled all confirmed orders in which the buyer entered the website before Noon. I was able to get extras coin because of this and that means somebody is getting fewer coins. Hopefully Dealers but somehow I doubt it. Scarcity is necessary and as long as we have surcharges bundled into the cost of the coins were just getting double duped. Mintage should have been under 25,000 for the Gold coins and the 90% Gold just leaves me to believe these coins could be… Read more »
The mint now shows 32000 proof and 18000 uncirculated sales of the gold BHC
Looks like there’s plenty of the silver dollars left. Initially they put my order on suspend. Also, gold HOF I ordered Friday actually are reserved in my account that I thought I missed out on. Anyone have any ideas when the 2013 proof and mint sets are going to be called? They should be selling out soon and most should be at record low mintages.
This just in, the mint is checking the coin news site anyone who placed orders and complained about the service will have their order cancelled.
Released about 30 minutes ago, the latest U.S. Mint sales figures are available here:
http://www.coinnews.net/2014/04/01/curved-baseball-coins-selling-fast-collectors-voice-frustration/
@ Jack here is the link, large numbers, little scarcity or value for these even if they sell out. http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/cumulativeSalesStatistics/