US Mint Sales: Breast Cancer Coins Debut

One can readily surmise from the appearance in the above listings of specific item sales number declines, that is. returns to the Mint, that the flippers aka speculators are still up to their same old dirty tricks of rejecting retention/ownership of coins that don’t end up grading at PF70. We can only hope these charlatans will gradually be, and hopefully sooner rather than later, expelled from the the Mint’s customer base as their unnecessarily costly and troublesome buying & return patterns become ever more clear and obvious. And finally, perhaps the Mint will step up to take the time and… Read more »

Mouse, Allow me to address those two separate points in reverse order. I totally agree that the silver proofs should have been minted in 99.99 silver to give them at least a modicum of legitimacy. As long as the Mint sticks to its 90% silver – i.e., coin or junk silver – formula this kind of fiasco is virtually guaranteed to happen. As to what kind of quality collectors can expect to receive from the Mint, I politely and humbly beg to disagree when it comes to the grade rating that purchasers of proof coins have a right to expect.… Read more »

Old Collector – I agree that not all minted coins will come out a pr or ms 70, that can never be obtained. Most collector do not have the education or training to grade coins 68-69-70 as it takes years to prefect the art. I am in the process of learning myself. Coins are graded not only by the naked eye but also 5x magnification. If a proof gold coin is delivered with a visible scratch in the field / to the naked eye, the coin needs to be returned. We spend our hard earned dollars to purchase coins and… Read more »

Mouse, You are certainly right in regards to being able to expect gold coins that one purchases from the Mint to have no flaws visible to the simple unaided, naked eye, and if a coin does indeed have one or more of those, then of course it makes perfectly good sense to return it. On the other hand, I was addressing this issue in reference far more specifically to those coins which may have been submitted for an extra-careful, magnification-assisted inspection and found not to qualify for the PF/MS-70 grading. In such a case, where even a very thorough professional… Read more »

It’s too bad the mint couldn’t take a hint from at least Ottawa and put a little gold plate highlight on the silver coin to spruce up the coin some. Having a total white background with a little pink gold plating like on the butterfly and/or the ribbon would make the coin much more attractive to the eye. But then this is the US Mint whose best designs come from 100 years ago. And Congress is so old and staid and without imagination they can’t ask the mint to provide such improvements either.

Jim – I fully agree. The US mint should have added a rose gold highlight to the silver coins for more eye appeal, gosh knows they are gonna have a surplus of rose gold to do the job.

Mouse

jim –

We got a U.S. Mint Director on Wednesday, March 21, after a 7 year vacancy. He is a great guy! (David J. Ryder). I met him once at a ANA coin show at the Mint booth back in the day when he was a recess appointment as U.S
Mint Director by Bush (not confirmed by Senate, under the recess appointment power of the President, but with full title & pay). He did very well during his very short time in the office & is a numismatist! Thank G-D! Amen! PTL!

-NumisdudeTX

Mouse, jim, Seth Riesling,

In the final analysis all that really matters is that the U.S. Mint consistently turns out high quality products offering something of interest for everyone with a good value and at a fair market price.

Happy collecting, everyone.

Old Collector