Why does the U.S. mint not sell bullion coins to the public?

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"Selling in bulk to authorized dealers for dissemination to the public may seem like a needless middle-man ploy, but competition between secondary sellers and the low base premiums charged by the US Mint ensure that end-prices for consumers remain relatively close to the spot-price".

Is this really true?


What about fees and tax and surcharges and shipping?

 

The US mint does a far better job of bulk selling and shipping to their preferred dealers than they do for individual collectors.

Think of all the fiascos with ordering the Morgan/Peace dollars etc.

 

It costs a lot of money and manpower to ship coins as common as BU silver eagles at the rate that the US mint makes them.

It would be a nightmare if they sold normal coins to the public. Think of all the issues in quality control they would have. On top of the fact that there are collectors that only want one coin per year, as well as people who only want a few silver eagles. They'd have to hire a lot of people to package orders as well as invest a ton more into customer service.

It's so much easier to sell $3,000,000 in silver eagles as a bulk order than as many small collector/stacker orders. Not to mention that bulk programs help propagate the market and make jobs for coin dealers, meanwhile saving US taxpayer dollars. That is a win-win in my book.

** This is only my speculation as someone who has had experience with wholesale bullion & coin deals**

 

Spot on!

 

So it's because they're incompetent? They sell 90% coins but not 99.99% coins (bullion), and is there such a thing as 90% gold coins?

 

The fact is though, they come out with more and more every year ( collector sets, birthday sets, memorial coins etc.) and don't seem to mind shipping all that junk.

 

It has nothing to do with incompetence (although the US Mint has SEVERAL other issues, which is why I steer clear of any and all of their overpriced, uninspired products).

It's for the same reason thousands of products use distributors and don't sell straight to the public... it would be a logistical nightmare, they would have to staff up, the costs would be prohibitive, etc.

 

So then you give amazon a contract to do it for you.

 

So distribute to Amazon instead of dealers? That would be a great way to really irritate a lot of collectors.

 

Collectors?, or do you mean Dealers?

 

Australia’s Perth Mint allow individual buyers to purchase bullion coins directly. I wonder what is their secret?

 

It's because of cost and risk. Why on earth would they want to sell a single bullion coin to someone that might try and return it when they can protect themselves by having large contracts that cannot be canceled and allow no returns?

They would have to be some of the dumbest people ever in charge to switch over to individual sales where spot price moves and they very easily could lose millions waiting for a bunch of random people to order who would also be complaining they have to pay for shipping.

Long story short they only sell to a few sources that have long financial histories and capital because its the smart thing to do

So give Amazon a huge chunk of the profit for no reason whatsoever while driving up the cost overall including to buyers?

 

Ok Ok, It seems most agreed on the logistics problems that would involve giving easy access to a tremendous world commodity. " In 2017, it was almost $200 billion per day in over-the-counter transactions. Hence, gold is heavily traded, much more than many sovereign debt markets. Only Japanese Government Bonds and U.S. Treasuries are more liquid". Hmm, anyway I was trying to pull teeth here and get some/any other opinions as to why this is a common practice for, not all, but most countries.

As for a long term investment, another wonderful wonder is the "Pet Rock" theory, "Many people may have bought gold for the wrong reasons: because of its glittering 18.7% average annual return between 2002 and 2011, because of its purportedly magical inflation-fighting properties, because it is supposed to shine in the darkest of days. But gold’s long-term returns are muted, it isn’t a panacea for inflation, and it does well in response to unexpected crises—but not long-simmering troubles like the Greek situation. And you will put lightning in a bottle before you figure out what gold is really worth". It seems to me that any precious metal investment would be justified by most common investors as a "doomsday" net, but would it really put food on your table in a burning society?

Back to the topic. Here is an article on the matter, (It mostly focuses on theory as an explanation which I interpret as, That's just the way it is)...
https://www.gainesvillecoins.com/blog/why-cant-i-buy-bullion-direct-from-the-mint

 

I don't like what's happened to bullion premiums in recent years...they should be no more than 10% over spot just like they used to be before the bullion meltdown. Bullion distributors should be Federally regulated or quit!

 

Only if Jeff Bezos changes the shape of his rocket first.

 

I don't have an answer on how to produce and distribute a lot of coins all over the U.S. and other countries. I sure wouldn't want to manage that type of distribution. Like many of you, i did not like not being able to get all 5 of the new Morgan and Peace silver dollars. I did get the Morgan D and the S. I also have the 1921 D and S and will put both D's and S's together. I'm debating on having them graded and matched. Too much work for me and I double no one will have a chance to see them.

 

My local coin shop will pay spot for silver eagles, or any other form of silver 99.9% bullion. He sells for $4 over spot. Not bad compared to distributers, but still too high a margin for me.

 

Now here is a great example of how the mint is selling to the dealers at a cost that is appealing to a dealer and then compare it to the numismatic premium value as they would sell to us . So when you say they're saving money I find that a far fetched excuse to what the intentions really are and show me another example of where our gov. saves money...

 

Because it could only work if they had a cash window at a few designated sites where people could walk up, get the price at that moment in time, and pay cash. Checks can be stopped. Credit card charged can be challenged. Otherwise if they did it by internet or by mail certain people would try to cancel orders and/or return bullion if the spot market went down the next day. Look at all the people who return Mint products if they are not worth a profit by the time that they receive it.