ASE Anniversary sets are planned to be a yearly event in some form or another

Just out of curiousity am I the only one put off by the rumors of a 2012 and then a 2013 etc. special American Silver Eagle set? From a collector side of things it's getting out of hand. We have gone from three coins a year (bullion, proof, and W m/m burnished) with an occasional anniversary set of 3-5 coins for important milestones to planning to have bullion, phantom S m/m bullion, Proof, W burnished, S m/m (either UNC or bullion they haven't decided) and a reverse proof coin every year. By my count that's 6 in the works for 2012 and in 2013 and beyond it may get worse as they may add P/D/S/W mints for any and all finishes. That means theoretically a future year set of silver eagles could have 10-16 coins and maybe an additional if they do a high relief on top of everything else. On the financial side the mint already stated the billions of dollars generated from the ASE program especially in recent years is a certified money maker and ripe for expansion as it keeps the mint fiscally solvent plus some. However at current prices (plus heavy mark ups for these special coins and sets) times the number of coins it may take to keep sets current and complete how long before people can't pay for it or just say enough and walk completely away from ASE's and maybe even collecting in general. Is this just getting crazy and out of hand?

 

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I love the idea of having more coins and sets, I think the mint should keep rolling out endless possibilities.

 

It doesn't bother me and if you only want or need one ASE a year, then buy just the one. It's that easy.

 

Exactly. Just get what you want. I personally would like the variety. I would get the bullion for stacking, I'd pass on the proof and burnished, I'd probably get the reverse proof and would definitely get the first ultra high relief.

There's no way I would try to get each variety from each Mint locaton. Aside from being cost-prohibitive, there are just too many other nice coins from other mints around the world I'd rather have. Let's face it, when you've seen 1 ASE, you've pretty much seen them all (with a little variation, that is.)

 

I think the mint is desperate to expand their numismatic and bullion programs because they are going to need as much profit from them as possible. This year the Mint made $51 million profit on the numismatic and bullion program. If it hadn't been for the circulation dollar coins the Mint would have LOST $38 million on the circulations coin. So the entire annual profit would have been $13 million instead of nearly $400 million. Well next year they won't have that dollar coin profit and they may need as much numismatic and bullion profit they can get their hands on to stay out of the red.

 

What I've read most of this is knee jerk reaction from the mint based on people ticked because they felt the latest anniversary set distribution was unfair and also from the surverys sent with the product. So of course all the flippers just blindly check all the boxes to have more coins to flip; many aren't collectors themselves. I thought the mint has always been against this sort of thing or am I misunderstanding something? I understand what you guys are saying if someone is only into proof or bullion eagles. However when you are trying to keep the set complete and by complete I mean kind of like a master set of every one it becomes ridiculous when it balloons into needing a dozen or more coins just to keep the set current. Plus some of these are going to be foolish endevours that may only last a year just for the sake of profit? Especially like treehugger said their are other world, older series, and nicer coins and sets people do want to collect.

 

I am pretty sure that the mint is also considering that fact, plus changing household limits and minting limits for these new sets, they said something about it but not exactly what they would do. I don't think we'll have rushes like that of the 2011 set for most of these new ones.

 

I like that the mint is responding to the gross demand, as opposed to "manufacturing" demand by minting less and less of alternative commemoratives (olympics, presidential spouses, and whatnot). ASE is a cool design, and I like the comparison Eric Jordan makes to the Morgan dollar, in terms of mintage, collector base, and ability to acquire in MS condition. If there's a new generation of collectors of ASEs, why not serve that demand? I would also definitely pick up a few high UHRs.