Free Money!

Here's an interesting tidbit from Friday's Federal Register...

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY United States Mint
Pricing for 2012 Annual Sets and America the Beautiful Quarters® Bags & Rolls

AGENCY: United States Mint, Department of the Treasury.

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: The United States Mint is announcing 2012 pricing for annual sets
and the America the Beautiful Quarters® Bags and Rolls.

Product Retail Price

2012 United States Mint Proof Set® .....................$31.95
2012 United States Mint Silver Proof Set® .............$67.95

2012 United States Mint Uncirculated Coin Set® ....$27.95

2012 United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set™ ..........$14.95
2012 United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set™....$41.95

America the Beautiful Quarters® Bags ........$34.95
America the Beautiful Quarters® Rolls ........$32.95

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

The release of the 2012 Annual set pricing in the Federal Register suggests that release of the 2012 Annual sets is "imminent". Release of the 2012 sets hasn't been posted on the Mint's Product Schedule, yet...but I suspect we'll see it shortly.

The BIG question is whether or not the 2011 sets will remain on sale with the 2012 sets. The Mint has surprised us before by pulling products with no warning!! If anyone has plans to buy any more of the the 2011 annual sets, they might want to do it sooner rather than later...(imho).

Since there's no reduction in the 2012 prices, there's no reason why both the 2011 and 2012 products couldn't stay on sale together a while longer. However, I would have expected a Federal Register announcement that the 2011 products would be reduced a few $$ like they did with the 2011/2010 prices. The fact that the 2011 prices weren't reduced could signal an imminent sellout.

It'll be interesting to see what happens! :hail:

Btw, the Front Page story on the January 16th issue of Coin World is the historically low mintages of US Mint 2010 Annual sets...a day late, and a dollar short if you ask me!

 

It certainly will be interesting to see what kind of sales numbers they churned out last week. Actually, the last 2 weeks. I'm going to guess the 2 week total sales to be 2,160 sets sold, which will bring the total sales number to 546,390.

The Federal Register info Yakpoo posted really provides food for thought. Did a quick check of EBAY offerings of the 2010 & 2011 Silver Proof Sets. If buying, I would suggest bidding rather than Buy It Now. The Buy It Now pricing is a little too high. Bidding highs don't really seem to have changed from 2 weeks ago. They're still in the $60 - $69 range.

 

...or NOT!
[FONT=&amp]
[/FONT] [FONT=&amp]

2011 SILVER PROOF SETS
2011 U.S. Mint Silver Proof Set [/FONT]544,230 Not Provided

[FONT=&amp]I actually read the Coin World article this evening and the author, William T. Gibbs, states...

[/FONT]

[FONT=&amp] Mr. Gibbs says that sales or 2011 Annual sets will "likely" run through the end of the the year. I sure wish he would say on what he bases this opinion. If he has some specific information from the US Mint that he's not reporting, I really wish he would. [/FONT]

 

Well, I'm pretty much at a loss for words now. That's unusual to, because I've always got something to say. I don't know what to say or think. I just don't understand the reasoning behind the fact that no sales figures are being released for the 2011's the past 2 weeks. If it's accidental, then why? If it's intentional, then why? I just don't understand how these sets could possibly be available for the remainder of the this year. After much discussion in this thread, I thought the mint was trying to not produce as many sets as they have done in the past to prevent overlapping sales from two different years. They switched from January to January and I believed they were going to "better estimate sales demand" so that sets from the previous year would not be available forever and just keep hanging and hanging on. At this point in time, it's last year all over again.
William T. Gibbs says the Mint is still taking orders for the 2011 Silver Proof Sets, and will continue to do so while inventory remains or until Mint officials announce a specific cutoff date. Those 3 things, we already knew. And have known for some time now as fact.
Then he states that "Sales of 2011 sets are likely to run through the end of calendar year 2012". So where did that come from? Is that also a fact? Or conjecture? Also known as theorizing, predicting or just good old fashioned guesswork. I'm with Yakpoo, if he knows something more than what he reported, why the story but not the whole story?

 

Actually, your calcs are wrong. You're applying a probable after market price (~$42) for only the 5 quarter ATB silver proof set to the full silver proof set (14 coin set). But I don't see anywhere a full 14 coin silver proof set can be found for less than the $68 purchase price from the US Mint.

Therefore, there is actually a $20 premium (at current silver spot) for the full 14 coin silver proof set over the silver and non-silver coin face values.

Regardless, if the mintages make the 2011 14 coin silver set the key date set, then the current $ premium could be worth it.

 

You are right, he is. That is because the question posted was about just the quarter set.

 

No...he cites the additional $5.06 for the non-silver coins in the set (5 dollar coins, one cent and one nickel) and the 5 quarter set does not have non-silver coins in it.

 

Another poster said he/she could buy it (the full set) for $42. It was actually probably the quarter set, but that's where the confusion started.

 

I know, but I thought the miscalculation needed to be rectified in order to prevent people being misled.

 

2schnauzers2luv posted 1/20/12

Waiting for Yakpoo, can't wait to hear his comments for week 1/25 - they will be interesting after last weeks zero. Could we see a repeat?

 

If you go back to Post #407, our new friend, Callaway29, made the observation that he could buy 2010/2011 Silver Proof sets (14 coins) on eBay for $42/set...(w/ Free S&H)!

My response (in Post #410) was that he "would be a fool" not to buy full Silver Proof sets at $42/set because the silver value at that day's price (plus the face value of the non-silver coins) was greater than $42. There was no mention of "Quarter, only" sets or how much the coins cost from the Mint...just what Callaway29 said he could buy the full Silver sets for on eBay.

However, I did make a different mistake...I misstated the intrinsic value of the 2010/2011 Silver Proof sets. Just prior to making Post #410, I had been working with early '60s Mint sets (P&D)...which contain 1.23 troy ounces of silver. I mistakenly used that number in my Intrinsic Value calculation of the Silver Proof sets instead of the correct number of 1.34 troy ounces of silver. I noticed the error and quickly corrected the mistake with the "EDIT" comment at the end of the post.

I apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

 

:cheers:

I'm going to send a letter to Coin World tonight to see if we can get some clarification.

Now this is just a GUESS...a Hypothetical, but let's say for a moment that the Mint, expecting 2011 Silver Proof set would sell over 600,000...MINIMUM, produced that many sets early on never dreaming that sales could fall below that number. We now have sales of only 544,230, which would mean there are 55,770 sets remaining!! ...following this "hypothetical".

Although the Mint's "intention" might have been to end 2011 sales at the end if January 2012 (when the 2012 sets were to be release), now they have to either continue selling the 2011 Silver Proof sets or destroy them. This could be the source of the confusion they seem to be having.

If this "hypothetical" (and these numbers) are correct, the Mint would have to have AVERAGE sales of 1,162 sets/week, to sell them all by December 31, 2012 (or by the end of the world...whichever comes first!)

LOL...I guess the FREE MONEY thread rolls on!! :hail::hail::hail:

 

So if they made too many of these sets, that means they will make less of the 2012 ones and thus making the 2012 ones a key date...

Just my opinion :hail:

 

Speculation... Funny as hel!

 

"Looks like deja vu, all over again".....Yogi Berra

 

But you need to actually go to ebay and you will see that there are no BINs or auctions that result in a price less than the $68 price from the Mint for the 14 coin set. But there are many 5 quarter sets that can be purchased for about the $42 price.

I simply posted my clarification on your numbers because I felt the thread would mislead the unsuspecting to look for 14 coin set pricing that likely didn't exist on 1/21/2012 (date of post #407) and doesn't exist now.

 

This is speculation on my part given what I know about manufacturing processes and observations of the US Mint, but I believe these silver proof and silver quarter proof sets are "build to plan" and not "build to order". "Build to plan" means they book a manufacturing plan with the idea they plan to sell X number of units. The manufacturing floor orders the raw material, they will run these in batches, and send them to the warehouse where they will wait to fill orders that have not come in yet. Because they will want to reduce costs, they will use what is called "just in time" manufacturing where the raw materials all show up at the right moment to used on the manufacturing line.

So they will spend several weeks running these coins (or how long it takes) then tear down the machinery so something else can be produced. This is where the primary cost savings comes from. i.e. They can reuse floor space. The trick is that you have to be very good about predicting orders. The Mint may schedule several manufacturing cycles for a particular set through the year, but it's my guess, they can't simply crank up the machines in an arbitrary manner outside the scheduled times.

All the coins get sent to the warehouse/fulfillment. (I believe one is in Kentucky) The law does not prevent, in general, the Mint from selling coins that were issued in the previous year in the current year. Some coins do have a specific restriction but not the proof sets as far as I can tell. Since the quantities the Mint has produced is a confidential matter, there really is no way to tell how many coins are out there until after the Mint has withdrawn the sets from market. There is no way to tell what the end date will be until the Mint announces it.

Given that the mint is still selling these sets, there is no way to predict if there are new key dates or not. If silver rises back to $40-$50/ounce, the mint may not change the price on the 2011 sets so that the warehouse gets cleared out quickly. This happened several times with the 2009, 2010, & 2011 quarter sets.

 

Agreed! :cheers:

My intent wasn't to question the observation of a new CT member; I simply was saying that if anyone can find full silver proof sets at that price...GO FOR IT!!!
...it's FREE MONEY!!! :hail: (I think we're saying the same thing...just in different ways)

 

I stumbled upon some HOT news. I'm an email subscriber to KP Numismatic Updates sent out free by Krause Publications. I got a new update this morning, and it contained the latest mint stats through January 23rd, 2012. Including the 2011 Silver Proof Sets. The sales number they listed was 547,314. That's up 3,084 from the last sales report we got 2 weeks ago. Thus, averaging 1,542 per week. They also listed the 2010 Silver Proof Set sales, with the asterix, at a total of 583,912. Which is 1,502 less than the last/final sales figure they gave us of 585,414 2 weeks ago. Which makes no sense. So, I don't know. But, at least we have somewhat of a better idea of what's going on.