He's a whacko, who doesn't understand the concept of "rationing"! According to Mirriam Webster it means "to distribute equitably" or "to use sparingly", and has no connection to the concept of distribution contracts. The Mint doesn't "ration" bullion coins - it just distributes them to a limited number of dealers who in turn act as wholesalers, selling them to retail dealers and, to some extent, directly to the public. Many government mints do the same thing, including the Japan Mint, among others. I don't know whether this guy is a law school flunk out, or merely a self-anointed legal expert, but either way his discussion of what he perceives the law to be is so far off base that it isn't really in the ballpark at all.
Such energy wasted on such a fruitless argument. Why don't we have this goofball complaining about high gas prices?! Or why we don't have more Fuel Efficient Cars? Well that explains it.
yes it is true the major distributors have been told that they will not get more than a certain number of coins from the mint.
"the law is the law." this is true but the question is does the policy actually break any law. They are being made available through third parties. If there has been a major shortage of these I haven't heard about it. Richard
Yes they are rationing. They have orders for more coins than they have planchets to produce them (The suppliers of the planchets have not been able to keep up with demand.) So they have said to the distributors "In the past distributor X has purchased 30% of all of the silver eagles so he can have 30% of the ones we are able to make. Y has bout 20% in the past so they can have 20% of what we can make, and so on. That IS rationing. I don't see anything wrong with it.
I think that they are referring to bullion coins. Because I know you can order as many coins with mint marks as you want. But locked that squirrel bait up anyway.
I'll send you some of my 1940's gas rationing coupons so you know what rationing is all about. Just send me that $10 Indian as a security deposit.
you dont really need that deposit you were around when the coin was being made too bad you missed out but thats what happens if you keep coupons. they have been rationed to you
Nope, they do blank their own nickels, dimes, quarters and half dollars from strip provided by suppliers but cents and bullion products have the planchets provided by outside suppliers. I'm not sure if the sac and president dollars come in as planchets or strip. A few years back they also had some SAE production problems and there were reports from the mint that the quality of the planchets from the suppliers were not up to standard. Also by getting in planchets for the bullion coins rather than strip eliminates the headache of handling the wastage from the strip which would have to be shipped back under security due to it's high value and bulk. (The mint no longer has the foundry to melt the scrap back down themselves.) If they ship in planchets the supplier can remelt and re-roll the scrap to make more planchets right there on the premises. In the popular TV program on the US Mint that shows frequently on the History or Discovery channel they even show the mint supplying the gold bullion for the GAE but they still show it being sent to an outside contractor who processes it and sends it back as planchets.
for anyone who doubts that this is not rationing please go ahead and read this http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=4744
