VENTING - 25th ASE set,

Actually...it's both. The US mint's original intended purpose was to "manufacture coinage for use in commerce" just as you say...and they still do that. But, once they began producing coinage that was intended for and sold specifically to collectors...they entered a different field with a different purpose. If they want to sell coins specifically meant for collectors and sell them too collectors...then they must cater to those collectors.

 

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This isn't equivalent. Regulations affect corporations and individuals. The Mint is neither. No matter, it's irrelevant. The US Constitution is clear enough in regards to USA coinage. It's easy enough to find on the Internet as is all legislation that affects every aspect of the Mint's actions.

 

Which is why you can’t base an argument simply on the original constitution. You have to take into account all aspects, amendments, legislation, etc that have changed/clarified the constitution since its inception, in order to make it work best for the majority. The Mint is a good example of this evolution.

And, directives for government agencies are the equivalent to regulations for private companies/individuals.

 

Indeed. I just read through the current legislation covering the mint's operations. As it turns out, the minting of these coins, as well as all coins produced by the US Mint, unless specifically authorized by legislation, are left to the discretion of the Secretary of the US Treasury. Currently this would be a one Timothy Geitner who is appointed by the US President and confirmed by the US Senate. Mr. Geitner is the closest equivalent to a CEO of the place except that he isn't required to show any business results and he is subject to direct orders for coin minting by the Congress & President.

It's an interesting situation since Geitner is a part of the Executive Branch, but it is Congress, the Legislative branch, that controls coinage. More simply, Congress will release specific detailed legislation for their pet projects like the ATB, but for other matters affecting coinage, they leave it up to the President and his crew. It's not remotely close to anything like a business or corporation.

Additionally, corporations can go to the Judicial branch to contest business regulation put forth by Congress. The Mint can't do this.

 

I only skimmed over this thread as I see the topic is getting a little away from the title... but I did see a few folks mentioning that they thought it should have been a 1 per household offering initially. At first, I thought the same thing would be more fair to the collectors who really just wanted one set.

However, after thinking about it some more, I don't think that would have changed much at all. For example, the dealers who wanted to get 25 sets would just have to find more friends/family to order on their behalf... then you'd have 25 people instead of only 5 clogging up the Mint website and phone lines. The dealers that wanted 100 sets, would have 100 people logging in and calling in instead of just 20. Sure, it would have taken a little bit longer for the 100,000 sets to sell out, but given the demand for this set it would have been just as hard to get through to order, if not harder to get through given that more people would have been trying, and you'd still have people upset they didn't get through to get a set.

 

Given this would have effectively eliminated 4/5ths of the potential profit motive, a lot of coin flippers might not have bothered.

 

If the mint were to change the household limit to 1, all of us who have multiple collectors in one household would be at a major disadvantage. There are currently 4 collectors in my house and a new one may begin collecting soon which is why we ordered all 5 of our limit. If we were limited to 1, I don't know what we would have done.

Remember, not everyone who is buying 5 sets is buying them to flip them...

 

I was lucky to afford one set but even if I could have afforded more I would not have as I would hope that another collector would have a chance at one.

 

I've only ordered a few things directly from the mint, and I never had any damaged coins. With a limited mintage set like this, if one or more of my coins were damaged, what would happen if I wanted to send them back for replacement? Would they just refund me?

 

YUP! Then they'd turn around and send it to the next person on the waiting list.

 

More than likely? Yes.....

 

I wanted to reply to this thread with my own words, but illini took the words right out of my mouth.

In addition to the dealers getting these through their 'network', after reading other forums, members were showing MULTIPLE orders fom THEIR 'network'. It's amazing as many people got to order as their was (the average collector, getting a max of 5, not abusing the system, and placing a 'network'). It's crazy how many 'branches' down the family tree people were willing to go to get as many as possible....not to mention friends, friends of friends, in-laws of those friends....the lengths some people went to to get these sets....just incredible! And, it's all due to making as much $$$ as possible flipping these, as well as looking for the 'perfect 70's'....those 70's sets will fetch big bucks out of the gate, and likely will sustain a still-healthy premium even after the price has come down a bit and stabilized