Hi I am no collector of coins. In fact, I have no idea about coins except for the ones in my wallet! lol anyway, i want to know what coin this is and how much it is worth now
Not a coin. A one ounce bullion round. As for value, Spot price of the silver content (currently 29.53)
Would that also make any ASE THE SAME as they also are silver rounds? What would make them different from this coin? And why is it the mint can charge an outragest price for these? I would argue they are the same and id never pay the price our mint charges for the ASE silver rounds. One way i look at it is we taxpayers pay for everything that comes through the mint. We supply the building the dies the silver and even the labor that goes into the makeing of these over priced silver rounds. We are really getting hosed over by our own goverment. But because of thousands that are willing to buy for the price charged the mint can get away with it. When we stop buying every set that comes out for maybe 3 years you would see these come down to a little over silver cost. Id like to know where all the profit goes as these guys work even when you dont buy the mint sets so there must be some real strong profit somewhere.
Because there are enough people willing to pay for them to make it worthwhile. OK. Join me in not buying them. I fail to see your point. If under ordinary cost accounting methods the Mint is showing a profit, those of us who don't buy ASEs benefit as taxpayers from the "overpayments" by those who do. You just answered your own question. Think about it - ultimately any "profit" goes into the US Treasury just as any "loss" comes out of there.
For the millions of them that the mint sells, the business strikes, there is no difference at all. They don't. The mint sells the business strikes to the approved list of buyers, and only the approved list of buyers, for a small percentage over the costs to mint the coins. Then those approved buyers sell the business strikes to the public for an additional small percentage over what they paid. In the end, what the public pays for business strike ASEs is about the same as they pay for any silver round. What you are doing is comparing the collector sets of ASEs that the mint sells to silver rounds. You claim the prices they charge for these collector sets are outrageous, but in reality they aren't. The law dictates what the mint has to charge for the collector sets. And the law dictates that mint must sell at a price that is higher than the production costs. If you read the annual mint reports you will find that what the mint charges for these collector sets is only a small percentage over and above the actual production costs. There is a very valid reason for this happening. That reason is to prevent you the tax payer from paying the bill for items collected by coin collectors. In other words, the costs is passed on to the people who want the coins and nobody else. Would you rather it be different than that ? The way the US Mint operates is the one and only portion of our government that actually operates in a way that makes sense. It operates at absolute zero cost to the tax payer. No, we don't. The only people that pay 1 cent for any of the collectors sets issued by the mint are the coin collectors. And that is by choice, their choice ! In the first place there is more to it than silver cost alone. There are also the production costs. All of the people who work for the mint have to get paid, all of the equipment has be paid for, all of the utility bills, the furniture for the offices, etc etc etc - all of that has to be paid for. And by law it has to be paid with zero expenditure of tax dollars. Again, the only people who pay 1 cent for any of it, are the people who want the coins. Is there something wrong with the idea that people who want something should have to pay for it ? And not everybody else ? I don't know about you, but that makes perfect sense to me.
I'll address a few things here. First, the piece shown in the first post is not a coin, but is rather a privately minted silver round that is not monetized. The ASE, AGE and APE are produced by the Federal government and are monetized, though of course one would be foolish to spend them at their declared values. The assumption of value for the privately minted bullion round depends upon the confidence in the accuracy and truthfulness of the producer, which may leave the piece with limited liquidity. However, the assumption of value for the ASE, AGE and APE depends upon the confidence in the accuracy and truthfulness of the Federal government, which regardless of how unhappy folks might be with the Federal government, it is still regarded with the utmost respect when it comes to the precision of US Mint products. Therefore, the backing of the US government gives the ASE, AGE and APE far more liquidity and additional value when compared to an anonymous, private manufacturer of unknown intent, quality or purity and this difference is reflected in aftermarket price. As for the profits of the US Mint, well, they go into the general funds for the US government and in a very tiny way reduce the need for higher taxes or additional borrowing.
In a way, yes, but really, no. An ASE is monetized with one dollar and can be spent if silver drops below that. Demand. People want ASEs because they like it. There are sooo many generic rounds out there with so little demand. Because they can. Good. Then don't.
