U.S. Mint Considering Colorized Coins

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Adding some color to U.S. commemoratives is under consideration, the United States Mint revealed during a Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday to review candidate designs for the 2020 Basketball HOF Coins.

Two 2020 Basketball Commemorative Coin Design Candidates
Shown are two of nearly four dozen possible designs created for the 2020 Basketball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins. There is a possibility that the eventual selected designs many feature color.

The U.S. Mint has never added color to coins.

"The United States Mint is considering the use of colorization on this commemorative coin program," commented April Stafford, Director of the U.S. Mint’s Office of Design Management. "I stress the word ‘considering’."

The final Basketball coin designs would play a large part in driving an eventual decision, the use of color would be subtle and limited to silver and clad coins, and any colorization would happen only after intense research and development to ensure the quality of the coins would be of the highest regard.

2019 $5 Moon Landing 1oz silver coin and 2019 Apollo 11 clad half dollar
The joint US-Australian 50th Anniversary of the Lunar Landing Two Coin Set includes a colorized 2019 $5 Moon Landing 1oz Silver Coin from the Royal Australian Mint and a regular proof 2019 Apollo 11 Clad Half Dollar from the United States Mint. World Mints other than the U.S. Mint have colorized coins for years. The U.S. Mint is considering some use of color in next year’s Basketball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins.

Other world mints, like the Royal Canadian Mint, Royal Australian Mint, The Perth Mint of Australia, and the British Pobjoy Mint, have a long history of producing and selling coins with color.

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MJS

Oh No

Christopher Williams

I agree!!! NO!!!!

coinguy

Not a good idea. 3 NO’S

Chas Barber

No & the design is another PC goodyness example….

Seth Riesling

Note to U.S. Mint: Just say “No!” to colorized kitsch coins.

NumisdudeTX

sam tweedy

No NO NEVER!!!! U S MINT!!!!

gary

We have to say yes to colorized coins or were racist, so yeah i’m for it.

gary

so silly

joera

I sure hope the US Mint does not do the colorized coins. If people want these colorized coins they do have other world mints to pick from to buy them. Another idea that might work is for the US Mint to do two different versions of the coins they do decide to add color to. One with the color and one without the color. That way people can have what they want and maybe that can lower the final mintage of the coins that don’t have color because some will only buy the colorized and some of the total mintage… Read more »

captainrich

The only positive thing that I can see about the U.S. Mint colorizing its commemorative coins is that it would provide a milestone for me to finally say my current collection is complete.

c_q

I wouldn’t buy colorized coins. Yeah sure other mints do it – that doesn’t mean the US mint should also.

I think they could make the design on the right in the pic above in gold or brass to make it resemble a basketball more, without resorting to paint

Domenic

Colorization no! Now i wouldn’t mind every once in awhile a bi-metal coin..say outer ring of brass with inner silver etc., but colors….big fat no!

a Bob

I would also stop collecting commemoratives if they begin to colorize them.

Jake

Silver is a color, Gold is a color. Do we really need to add a layer of an artificial color on top of our coins? Ew, no, gross.

Christopher Williams

If anyone wants a colorized/gold-plated coin, they can always buy them from Mike “Sold Out, Limited Edition” Mezack.

Chas Barber

Maybe Chocolate coins will be next……………

Seedyrom

As an Aussie, we have indeed had them for years. But the quality just isn’t like the “aspirational” pictures make it appear.
The ones that drive me crazy are silver proof coins that have been painted black. This is straight from the Royal Australian Mint. Why have a silver coin if you can’t see any silver?

Seth Riesling

The black base metal plated silver coins from the Royal Australian Mint are an abomination! lol

NumisdudeTX

RonnieBGood

I agree will you all.
And not afraid to say that I will never buy another US Mint coin if they join the colorized camp.