This morning, July 31, the United States Mint announced that it is reducing the limit of in-person purchases of dual-dated 1964-2014 Proof 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Coins to one from the previously stated two-coin limit.
Tom Jurkowsky, U.S. Mint Director of Corporate Communications, said "demand was too overwhelming" and they wanted to give "more people an opportunity to buy."
By trimming the limit, the Mint has effectively doubled the number of collectors who can get one of the Kennedy gold coins at the upcoming 2014 Chicago ANA World’s Fair of Money and from over-the-counter sales points in Philadelphia, Denver and Washington D.C.
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy half-dollar, the coins feature a restored Kennedy portrait and are struck in three-quarters of a troy ounce of .9999 fine gold, making them especially enticing to coin collectors.
In an official statement about the changed Kennedy gold coin limit, the Mint said:
"Because of the expected overwhelming response, dialog with our customers and many others interested in the 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Coin, the United States Mint is reducing the over-the-counter purchase limit to one unit per customer.
This change in the purchase limit will give more members of the public an opportunity to purchase this popular coin, essentially doubling the number of customers able to purchase it."
Overall, the household ordering limit will remain the same at five coins.
Sales kick off on Tuesday, Aug. 5, with pricing at $1,240 per coin. Beginning at 12 noon ET, anyone can order up to the household maximum at www.usmint.gov/catalog or by telephone at 1-800-USA-MINT (872-6468).
Ordering at the ANA World’s Fair of Money begins at 11:00 AM CDT for anyone with a ticket who is 18 years and older. Beginning at 8 AM, up to 500 tickets will be handed out to those in line outside of the show’s bourse floor. There will be 2,500 gold coins at the show with 500 available per day.
There will be 500 gold coins available initially at each U.S. Mint locations in Philadelphia, Denver and Washington D.C., and another 100 coins per day for the first three days after the product launch.
Good move. I like it. 🙂
I agree, but considering how labor intensive these coins are to make I don’t understand why the mint isn’t cutting the on-line sales limit from 5 to 2 or 3. As a collector I can barely afford to buy only one of these coins let alone 5. There’s been no published mintage limit for these coins that I’ve seen – maybe there should be one. I see this as another buy now (if you can) and wait forever for delivery that people are experiencing with the BB HoF coins. Is deputy incompetent Peterson still running the mint? Yes, I should… Read more »
I’ll buy at least 2. Same with the silver 4 coin set. All spare cash goes into US Mint gold and silver proof coins and 5 oz. uncirc. silver coins. All have appreciated nicely over the last 16 years. Wish I started sooner. Good luck to all with these Kennedy options.
Awesome! Finally the mint is doing things that are more collector friendly!
If there is no preset maximum, why limit online sales? Everybody gets what they order.
Good move. The Mint is doing a better job of listening to their coin public.
I agree that mintage limits make it exciting for the collector and improve the value for the dealer / investor. A mintage limit of 60,000 provides the Mint with a good profit and the collectors with few enough to keep the value high in the secondary market.
RBG –
The BB HoF gold mintage limit was 50,000 but because the household limit was set to 5 they disappeared before practically anybody had a chance to log on to the mint site (which took hours for some apparently). So the mint has to implement both a total quantity as you suggested but also a small household limit of one or two, to allow a wider distribution. After a while they can relax the household limit as they’ve done in the past.
Jim, I agree. But a limit of 1 per household is too small. It has taken the wind out of the 2ndary market sales in the past. Lets not squeeze out the dealers and the Mint. A limit of 3 per household would work for both and most collectors will be happy if they can afford 3. Recalling past low mintage disasters of the 20th Anniversary American Gold Eagles (with a 10k mintage) and the recent baseball HOF (with a 50k mintage & 5 per) A 60k mintage will sell out quickly and a limit of 3 per will still… Read more »
Well, sales for the 2009 UHR went up to around 115,000 at one per (to start anyway and of course gold was $500 cheaper then too). I see the UHR and the reverse proof buffalo as collector oriented coins whereas the Kennedy will have a more general populace appeal and a larger demand. But I’ll go with 60,000, 3 per, AND (sight unseen, untested) the new ordering system.
Today is the golden day! Good luck to everyone !
good luck for what? everyone can get 5 if they want
Currently 2 hour 15 minute wait time at 11:02 (and Rising!).
What a joke the new mint website is.
Just farm the distribution out to Amazon or Google or ANYONE competent.
19 min wait at 12:12
I went on, at exactly 12:01 and I was 1hr and 4 minutes behind. A few minutes later, I am 1hr and 58 minutes behind. Why does the damn mint’s clock go backwards?
I got on at 11:45 in the waiting room to get in line.
I got on a 11:45am and the damn room is already got me back 51 minutes….they need to fix this crap.
Backordered. Another fiasco like the HOF gold and silver coins.
We collectors will be lucky to get these coins in 6 months, if at all.
Dealers will have theirs in a few days.
Are the idiots running the mint incompetent or corrupt? Probably both.
I got my orders in at 1230
I was 58 mins and now I’m 1hr and 4 min. WTF? I’m not giving up!
Larry, got my order in at 12:20 1 to 2 week delivery.Sweet!
Order for 5 went through at 12:53. I guess it could have been worse.
Interesting, I can now log in to the mint website immediately and can shop, do everything with no wait. I tried from another device, and got over 2 hour wait time when I hit shop. The new mint website must be tracking MAC (Media Access Control) or IP addresses or something.
Hang in there and good luck, I have my fingers crossed for a pre-Christmas delivery
Yeah I went from 37 minutes initially to 68 minutes. BOO!
One hr. and 20 minutes, bought two. I went from less than a minute, to 3 minutes, to less than a minute to 2 minutes, to less than a minute, twice more, then it opened up. Good luck, everyone. Todd, five? Will you adopt me? 🙂
11 minutes and still no confirmation e-mail from the mint. I tracked my order, but “their sorry for the inconvenience” of not being able to show all “your orders.” GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Received the confirmation. Back ordered to August 20, 2014. I sure hope that is a possible ship date.
NOT a new mint website. That’s supposed to do away with the wait room. I’m sure the mint will announce the new ordering system when they choose to and not just slip it in when nobody’s looking. Probably have a noticeably different user interface too,
Though they should be test running the new one along side the old one for a volume test if anybody knew anything about software development there.