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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Caleb, post: 1958518, member: 32795&quot;]Hal1950 is having problems logging in to post his observations of the Denver Mint&#039;s Coin Shop first day sales of the special two coin Kennedy Half Dollar Set.&nbsp; Here is his observations.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;July 24th, 2014</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Sales of the new Kennedy Half Dollar (K14) set began at roughly 10AM Rocky Mountain time at the Denver Mint. The day before, a large out of town dealer, passed out fliers offering to buy the sets for $5 more than the $9.95 issue price. Thought to have a limit of 5 per person, this amounted to a $25 profit for every person that would wait in line &amp; purchase 5 sets from the Mint. The results were that 100-150 street people showed up hoping to cash in on the easy money. Certainly an interesting assortment of people to be sure.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Now this is where it becomes interesting… Around 9AM, word began to spread that the Mint was going to limit the sales to Two sets per person. There was noticeable discontent that spread thru the crowd as the word spread. Then another out of town dealer showed up and seemed to save the day by offering everyone $25 per set. The excitement was back, now everyone in line was going to make $30 profit! More is always better and more people began to show up as word seemed to spread by magic throughout the streets of the city.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>About 9:30 the dealer that had originally handed out the flyers arrived &amp; the belly bumping followed by a bidding war began. Soon the price was $50 per set, an $80 profit for every person that would stand in line. Ah, the joys of capitalism, I even think JFK himself was smiling down. After all, it was definitely a chunk of money going to some people who could really use it.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Apparently the original dealer that passed out the fliers decided that he wasn’t going to compete with the $50 price tag and departed leaving his competitor, a man with a large red sack, the spoils of the “Great Denver Mint Price War”.</p><p>Armed with $30,000 in $100 bills he soon began filling his “Red Bag” with the highly desired Kennedy Sets. Kind of like a “Reverse Santa” in a way. Then a slight glitch… The Mint ran out of change for the crisp new $100 bills, It seems that $20 bills were rarer than the coins! A mad rush was made to the 16th Street Banking district to exchange the useless Franklins for the now highly sought after Andrew Jackson’s. It took almost a half hour, but the exchanges were made &amp; now the sales could continue!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Person after person proceeded thru the line and after about 2 1/2 hours, The great Red Sack was bulging at the seams, and all the Franklins &amp; Jacksons were depleted. Roughly 600 sets were sold in this time and it was actually very efficient and peaceful throughout. The Mint personnel were courteous and helpful, all in all a pleasant experience.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Interestingly enough though, when the “Buyer” was whisked away from the scene, The Mint closed it’s doors and a group of about 15 police &amp; security guards disbursed the crowd announcing that the Mint was closed for the day &amp; sales would resume Monday at 8AM, yes the Denver Mint is closed to the public on Friday thru Sunday, who knew!</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Hal Greimann&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://i773.photobucket.com/albums/yy11/sid_ice_age/USMintGiftShop_zpsb56cec5a.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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