For those of you who are interested. From Coin World: https://www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/no-commemorative-coins-to-be-offered-in-2023
Additional info... https://www.numismaticnews.net/us-coins/will-u-s-mint-issue-2023-commemoratives https://www.cointalk.com/threads/no-us-commemorative-coins-for-2023.401721/
@Inspector43 Since you won't be purchasing any mint products this year, will you be responsible for the unemployment checks for the resulting laid off employees? Asking for a friend.
I don't think that will happen, but it is very perplexing. I'm guessing that you are inclined to sarcasm as well.
Purely as an interested observer, it will be fascinating to see where the mint dumps the large chunk of fixed costs it's typically charged against the commemorative coin programs.
I can't believe I didn't jump into the Innovation quagmire from the beginning. I saw that congress didn't approve any commemorative coins/medals for 2023. Let's blame that on the politicians. A commemorative coin for working dogs was on the list that hasn't been approved. My Australian Shepherd growled at me when I told her there wouldn't be a coin for dogs this year.
That's a good thing because I was going to use stacks of them to buy bread at Kroger. They're only $1 so I suppose we can get them for $1 too. <cringe> and people have complained that we dropped gold/silver coinage!!
The recent sales of U.S. commemorative coins have been very disappointing. Years ago there was a rule that the organization that was supposed to benefit from the sale of those coins had to reimburse the government of the sales didn’t cover the costs. I think that it grew out of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics commemorative coin fiasco. For those who aren’t familiar, the 1996 Atlanta set had 16 different coins in it and cost a fortune. The “big” Proof and Mint State set had 32 coins in it. I don’t know if that is still true. If so that might make organizations think twice about pushing Congress to authorize another commemorative coin program.
Not much different of a story from the original commemorative series. And perhaps it will have a similar end.
Still is, and is almost always made explicit in the enabling legislation. Either a statement that there shall be no net cost to the government, or explicitly calling out that the sale price covers it all... "SEC. 6. SALE OF COINS. (a) Sale Price.--The coins issued under this Act shall be sold by the Secretary at a price equal to the sum of-- (1) the face value of the coins; (2) the surcharge provided in section 7(a) with respect to such coins; and (3) the cost of designing and issuing the coins (including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, winning design compensation, overhead expenses, marketing, and shipping)." https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1235/text
Technically the enabling law says they are to Commemorate the 1921 coins, but are not commemoratives, thus not subject to 31 USC 5112(m)(1).
Reading through the list, I see nothing worthy of a commemorative coin in the first place. I am very glad none of them passed personally.
We have two threads on this same topic. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/no-us-commemorative-coins-for-2023.401721 https://www.cointalk.com/threads/no-us-commemorative-coins-in-2023.402395
