I didn't know what to put for the Title, so I just put the general subject of my post. Yesterday, I called 12 different banks and every single one of them said the Federal Reserve no longer ships out rolls of new coins (Presidential, Sacagawea, State Park Quarters, etc). My question is... How will we get them from now on? Are they planning on minting a lot less of them? The banks around here are pretty crappy anyway. I can hardly find halves or dollar coins. Maybe if I go to five banks, I will have $8 in halves and a few dollar coins. What has happened? How will the new coins circulate if they don't give them to the banks? Also each bank told me they cannot order the coins either. I'm so disappointed.
The 2012 and future? presidental dollar coins are no longer minted for circulation, you can buy them from the mint or another dealer, the quarters are still available, just maybe harder to find, banks can't specifically order certain coins, they get what they get.
What's the purpose continuing the program if they are not going to be circulated? I thought that was the point of the program? Now they'll be marked up like 500%.
Its a law? I believe that the coins have to be minted. Also why stop, there are collectors of them, you can find them on ebay for only a little over face.
Which program? If dollars, they're not and what is minted are for collectors. Basically, if you wanna play, you gotta pay. Maybe, but we're not talking big money here. I've gotten a whole two ATB quarters in change since first released, but one of the local shops sells for $0.50ea. If I cared about such things, I'd happily pay a $0.25 premium to pick choice unc coins instead of searching change. Unless these five banks are within walking distance, it's already costing you to search, so it may be best to pay the small premium and save yourself the hassle. All depends on what you're looking for.
I just feel like I'm being ripped off. Yes, there are collectors, but I think it's just another thing to get more money. Pretty bad I can find Eisenhower dollar coins easier than anything else. One bank alone had $160 worth of them and I bought $50 worth. They seem to dislike them...She basically told me to not bring them back. LOL
I know there are many people that want to complete collections that they've started (Presential dollars, ATB quarters, etc.), Mint products are over priced and badly marketed. Seriously consider avoiding them from now on.
If you can find Ikes, maybe think about offering trades. In my area, banks rarely get them (or so I am told) and people search them out at B&Ms. The point is that someone else may have easy access to what you're looking for, so its worth a shot since there are others who do collect such coins. I guess I can understand why you feel this way, but I disagree. For years we've minted far too many dollar coins and are left with a massive stockpile, so no longer minting for circulation is justified. As for the ATBs, its a similar situation... they simply are not needed in large numbers. Give it time.... sooner or later they will be, at least on ebay.
Look at it this way. The new pres dols and atb's, since minted in lower numbers, have better potential to appreciate - so, well worth the minor premium.
When banks order coins the Fed fills the order using first circulated coins, then older uncirculated coins and then lastly newly minted coins. So the only way the banks will get new coins is if they are out of all the older matterial. The banks never could specifically order new coins with the exception of the state quarters and the President dollars, and they could only special order those during a two week window before and after the release date. Once the state quarters ended they removed that option for the ATB quarters. It remained for the president dollars until this year when they stopped making them for circulation. So getting new coins at the bank is now just a matter of luck.
Keep in mind the world is trending from physical coin and currency to electronic. This will only continue to escalate. Therefore, we will have less and less a need for hard money. Given this, the concern of banks is going to focus on what their needs are to operate, not on what coin collectors want.
The availability of coin variety is what techies would call "source-sink". The mints and Federal reserve are the sources, the local banks are the sinks. If you live in an rural area where people return coins they receive back into the bank, the bank has no reason to order more. You are living in a full sink land. I live in a border region, and many work/live on different sides of the border ( that is why the wait is often 2-3 hrs to cross at certain hours) so coins go in both directions. My bank has a good influx of new coins ( all "D" mint) as their business customers need them. Likewise the money changers on the border has a good supply of foreign coins, "mostly Canadian and Mexican". Jim
