Satin Finish Coins

I should note that the way The Mint's press inquiries office stated this was to say, they've heard nothing about stoipping satins and that I should check their press releases online. I told her I did and found nothing - so, I was left with, yeah the press office knows nothing about stopping satins, yet there may be a press release they don't know about. That's the government for you! It may not hurt for those who are interested to keep calling until we get a definitive answer. I'll make some more calls too.
Contact:
Press inquiries: Carolyn Fields (202) 354-7222
Michael White, Office of Public Affairs (202) 354-7222.

 

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From the subscriptions section on the US Mint website.

"Register today for this subscription program and you will receive the 2010 United States Mint Uncirculated Coin Set as your first set under this program.

The United States Mint Uncirculated Coin Set includes two (2) folders of 14 coins each; one (1) from the United States Mint at Denver and one (1) from the United States Mint at Philadelphia, for a total of 28 coins. Each folder contains the following coins:

* (5) United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters™
* (4) Presidential $1 Coins
* (1) Lincoln cent
* (1) Jefferson nickel
* (1) Roosevelt dime
* (1) Kennedy half-dollar
* (1) Native American $1 Coin

Unlike circulating coins, uncirculated coins are struck on specially burnished blanks and feature a satin-like finish."

So it looks like so far they are still planning on a Satin Finish.

 

Thanks for finding that link - found it too. Sure looks like the satins will still be made. Wonder what HSN is thinking?

 

"stupid people won't take the time to check if we're right, so we'll make a fortune!"

 

Yep, and I can see how demand could be stimulated by ending the satins. However, it could also go the other way. If The Mint continues the satins and promotes them and collectors see the low mintages for prior years, future issues will be higher mintage, positioning the prior low mintage years as keys. Either way, I like the low mintage satins already produced and look forward to future issue as they look darn nice, almost like matte proofs.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I hate to defend HSN, especially if they’re out right lying (usually they just leave enough out to make it unlikely), but maybe they figure they’ll never have an unhappy customer that calls them on it because there’s a high probability the low mintage satins will go up even if the mint keeps making them, after all each year does pretty much stand on it’s own. But, I don’t like the satin rolls they’re selling – buy the time these coins make it to rolls, most have probably been cherry picked, leaving only the MS66’s and lower. Then again, maybe someone did leak at The Mint and they haven’t updated their webpage yet. We’ll see if The Mint stops the satins.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I hate to defend HSN, especially if they’re out right lying (usually they just leave enough out to make it unlikely), but maybe they figure they’ll never have an unhappy customer that calls them on it because there’s a high probability the low mintage satins will go up even if the mint keeps making them, after all each year does pretty much stand on it’s own. But, I don’t like the satin rolls they’re selling – buy the time these coins make it to rolls, most have probably been cherry picked, leaving only the MS66’s and lower. Then again, maybe someone did leak at The Mint and they haven’t updated their webpage yet. We’ll see if The Mint stops the satins.

 

I have tried contacting the Mint and HSN multiple times, through multiple channels (customer service, public relations, marketing departments, email, etc..) and have not gotten any information, zero, that bolsters the HSN hucksters statements at this time.

Could this information be picked up from inside the mint, such as engravers or artist? I could see them having inside info on what the mint is working on and thinking about.

Other than that I would say that this should be classified as a 'rumor' and nothing more until we hear otherwise from the mint itself.

 

Likely not cherry-picked. These are the left over coins from them busting up thousands of Mint Sets. Think about what they sell. The cents, quarters and dollar coins. This leaves the halves, dimes and nickels as left overs. If they push the "rarity" of these coins (which they do every time they air them) they give people a reason to buy what are otherwise "cast-offs" from the Mint Sets.

Because of the lower demand for these coins from the Mint Sets, it is my speculation that in the future these coins will be so common as to sell for less than their more plentiful uncirculated brethren.

 

HSN must have "an in" with the mint. They were selling presidential dollars in 2007, which would be the only year that the date and mint mark on the edge. In 2008, they sold presidential dollars with a comment that it would be the last year with the date on the edge. I'm not sure what they are saying in 2009 since I stopped watching but I bet that it is the last year with the date on the edge. I think that HSN should contact Elaine in the future. After all, she is the "rainwoman" of anything mint.

 

looking for contact information

Michael Mezack seems to have a FaceBook page. I don't FB so I cannot see beyond his public view page to know if it's really his page or even active. Also, I didn't turn up an hits on LinkedIn.com.

Mike Mezack "Celebrity, Expert Numismatist" and the host of the Coin Collector on Home Shopping Network.

I don't know the co-host's name to look him up. Maybe someone else does/can look for him.

 

It appears to be Mike in the photo on facebook. If it is the real Mike Mezack, he is standing in a pic with apparent family members. Here is the link from facebook. His sidekick is Alan Skantz.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/p...&ref=search&sid=100000360337992.2325101993..1

 

Yep, that's the same link I posted above for Mezack.

Not as much online about the sidekick, Skantz

Thanks for his name.

 

Could be, but doubt several years of satins will ever be considered common with low mintages, like approximately 750,000 for 2008. Numbers like that are a lot less than even regular circulation coins sold in rolls by the mint, then ad to those the rolls purchased at banks (when you can find them), etc by collectors like me.

Now consider the huge premiums paid for MS68 and especially MS69 satins and maybe justly so, they are nice, low population coins, reminiscent of matte proofs. If I ran an operation as big as those on TV, I'd have one set of staff cherry picking before the next set of staff stuffed the MS66's and below in rolls. That's not to say those rolls of MS66's and below don't have potential. An MS66 satin is still a nice looking low mintage coin and at the prices they're selling them, should only appreciate.

But, then again, maybe these promoters aren't cherry picking - I haven't seen any of their rolls. I'd think, based on the quality of these satins, as least one MS69 and may several MS68's should be found in each roll. Can anyone out there tell us what a roll of satins from these guys looks like?

 

If you wonder what a high grade matte proof with a mintage in the millions will sell for in the future consider this:

If almost all of a coin are in high grade then no premium will be paid for high grade specimens. (evidence MS-68 SAEs. They are almost all MS-67 or better.)

I would also add that you should look at the 1994-P Matte Proof Nickel in the Jefferson C&C Set to see what value lurks in these coins.

Currently one sells for around $100 with a mintage of just over 167,000 pieces. This is minuscule in comparison to the number of US Mint Sets made in any year since 2005. I personally think that people just don't collect them and that the high availability of the MS-68 and over pieces will make for a very flat value.

 

A couple more factors, case in point modern commems, low mintages combined with nice looking coins promotes demand. Once collectors "catch on" to the low mintages caused by their lack of interest in a variety of coin, demand increases. It's like, even though I didn't like the coin to begin with, now that it's rare, I do like it. Of course this causes future issues to be not so rare. Another factor, these are nice coins, similar to matte proofs, it takes time for the collector community to realize they're not the same coins that were once sold in mint sets, which were close to regular circulation pieces , they are a new, darn nice, low mintage variety.

 

True, grade rarity will be less of a factor, although the super high grades will still demand higher premiums. Yes, one of the problems with prior issues, like the nickel you mentioned is these coins don't have holes to fill in albums. Now that The Mint is making more of them, Whitman and the rest of them have less of an argument to exclude these coins from there albums (see the thread entitled Satin Coins Need Love Too). Whitman told me, "The satins are too specialized to include in albums". This will all change in the future. The question is, how long is the future?

 

Mintages are in the hundreds of thousands for 2006 to 2008, 2005 is the only one that hit just over a million. Once collectors catch on to how nice they are, combined with better availability than the 94 nickel, and there's a hole to fill, they should demand them. That said, if the 94 nickel is worth $100, these satins can be worth significantly more than they are today.

 

Got to go and watch The Rose Bowl - I'm in Oregon and it's time for the Pac 10 to win one! Maybe I'll cherry pick some 69's out of some satin mints sets I just picked up while watching the game. ttyl

 

do you mean this:

or this:

If demand increases due to relative rarity, then the 94 Matte Proof should be much more valuable. Demand and rarity create value. There has to be both! For the Mint Set nickels to ever have any value, people have to collect them first and it's going to take more than making albums with holes for them if you ask me. For them to become more sought after than a coin with roughly 1/4 the mintage in the same series, that would shock me. For them to be far more valuable IMHO is nothing more than wishful thinking.

I would expect the value of these coins to increase at about the same rate as the 1950-D Jefferson Nickel does and for roughly the same reasons.