I recently bought Ed Moy's book on gold and platinum eagles and found it to be a very interesting and insightful read. The background information given in this book is in some ways better than the Bowers series books which Whitman published. There is one thing that did get my head scratching in Moy's book: How does the mint price its numismatic products just enough to break even (plus a small margin to cover any potential losses so that taxpayers wouldn't have to subsidize collector purchases)? I find that hard to believe with the way the mint overprices their numismatic products. Why does the mint even make numismatic products and go crazy with the amount of products that they make to collectors if they're not really making any money, if any, off of it? If the mint isn't making money and going out of control with the amount of products that they come up with for collectors, then there really needs to be some reforms made over there.
Same response here as I did over there. http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=925320 In 2012, the annual report states: "At September 30, 2012 and 2011, the Mint transferred excess receipts to the Treasury General Fund of $77 million and $51 million, respectively. " The 2010 Report, under Ed Moy, stated: "Consequently, the United States Mint PEF generated a $388.0 million return to the Treasury General Fund, an 18.3 percent decrease from the $475.0 million return in FY 2009. " Aw man! They did not have nearly the profits in 2010 ($388 Million) as they did in 2009 ($475 million). These "profits are everything is said and done with all bills paid which includes operating expenses, supplies and equipment.
They can also lock in silver prices using futures contracts, to know their costs almost exactly, a year at a time.
