US Mint Price Update

Listed as "remind me", which is tantamount to 'sold out'......

 

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So tempting to respond to but I'd probably be given a 'time out' for a month.

 

We're not in it for investing, KB, just the love and lore of collecting....

 

I understand completely.

 

In case you haven’t noticed, the government does as it pleases.

 

For sure. I love having it and it was money well spent. Note that I said "spent."

The price of silver in 1971 peaked in March at $1.73 and bottomed in October at $1.31. NGC says the 1971-S Ikes have ASW 0.3162 oz. That means at the time these were minted, they had between $0.41 and $0.55 worth of silver in them.

Somebody check my facts and math! Can this be true? The mint was ripping people off even worse in 1971? In 1971 I had to mow two acres of lawn to earn $10. It was a LOT of money to spend on a coin.

 

Maybe not so uninformed. I think you're right on.

Bruce

 

No it doesn't magically appear at the new price, but if the merchant doesn't immediately raise the price he won't have the money to pay for the new higher priced gas when his next shipment arrives. Because he will have sold his current shipment for less than what the next shipment costs.

 

Well, nothing says Christmas like finishing off a year of price increases with an across the board clad coins price increase. Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas.

 

I've brought this up in previous relies/posts. For several years countless collectors have been buying then current U.S. Mint products far above the issue price and those at the United States Mint have noticed. While I am in no way advocating the over melt issue, from a business standpoint it makes perfect sense to reduce product output and increase revenue. And that's exactly what the U.S. Mint is, a business. At the end of the day they have to remain profitable lest they require tax funded dollars. On the bright side, mintage figures are currently at the 1957 level and dropping. I'll leave you to conclude further.

 

I was pumping gasoline in my car a while back and the price increased as it was flowing. After a heated discussion he corrected the difference.

 

It has to do with GAAP acounting.....LIFO and FIFO....depletion and other replacement costs.

You wouldn't know it from the financially ignorant media (except the business channels)....but refiners went 20 years without making money from the 1980's through the 2000's.

 

I guess the mint has to pay for producing the cent somehow.
It costs over 3 cents each to make them.

 

How about using AI and all these other algorithims to figure out who is buying the low-priced stuff over the years and give them priority over a bunch of fat-cat dealers or speculators who hire robocallers to get first dibs ?

If those with 1st dibs pass, then go down the priority list. I see the same prioritizaton with certain investment IPOs where the long-time depositors in banks get priority upon conversion to stock ownership over outsiders or speculators.

 

I can attest to this, first hand. What happened? Here's the lowdown.

I had a good friend who worked for a large brokerage back in the late 1980's through early 2000's. He was a higher ranking officer. Remember, the '90's-2000's were the heyday for high tech IPO's.

I'd asked him numerous times to hook me up with an IPO. He would constantly tell me there were only 4 maybe 5 or 6 brokerage firms that were the market makers for any one specific IPO. When the shares were allocated to each brokerage house they were then distributed to each broker within each firm. Most times each broker would get maybe 50 shares. Those minimal amount of shares needed to be doled out wisely to that brokers best clients as a 'gift' for keeping their millions with them. So I wasn't on the priority list, by a longshot.

One day, in 2000 he calls me and says he is offering me a one time 'gift'. Honestly, I can't even remember the name of the company. He allocated his 50 shares of xyz co. for me. The stock IPO price was $17/share. The total 'cost' to me was $850. I put the word cost in parenthesis for a very good reason. I'll explain in a moment.

The stock opened trading in the $60 range. It immediately climbed to $75 and he dumped it, all in my name. I had zero input on any of it. The shares sold within 10 minutes of me owning them, for $3,750. About one week later I received a check in the mail for the gain of $2,900. I never shelled out the 'cost' of $850 in the first place. The only transaction was me receiving the check for the gain.

It was that day when I learned that money makes money.

 

I received that notice also, but I've almost totally stop buying from the mint.
I do buy proof ASE for my grandchildren. After taht not much else.

 

Yeah, those were the "Wild, Wild West" days...tighter controls and the huge pops we saw then have NOT been replicated.

The big $$$ have actually been realized from buy-and-hold.

 

Not a buyer of these bullion coins but I can explain the reason in 3 words........

"Because they can"

If they are always selling out, they will continue to charge whatever they feel like at the moment.

 

In 2015 I told my wife I wanted to buy $10,000 worth of NVDA, it was going places. At the time, the share price was $19 a share. However our assets were tied up at the time and we were cash poor otherwise. It was a bit of a gamble. That is one of my life's biggest regrets. Fast forward to today, it still makes me nauseous. I can't even do the math anymore, because the stock has split half a dozen times.

 

The mint has a monopoly on the issues of new coins, so they engage in monopoly pricing. The agency does not have a monopoly in the aftermarket, however. If you are willing to wait, you might well end up with the coins you want a few years later for less money.

I’m still steamed at their pricing for coins that could be sold to YNs, however. Why they think that more than $50 is justified for a base metal commemorative half dollar is beyond me. In the old days they put out information cards with coins mounted in them which were “young people friendly.” They don't do that any more. The mint is just greedy.