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Message:: [QUOTE="ewomack, post: 2674114, member: 15588"]As much as I love the US and Canadian mints, they both release an annual flood of material with hefty premiums that has just become overwhelming and tiring. As others have noticed, coins have slowly started to go the way of stamps. Hopefully we won't get released to death and burn out. The Canadian mint seems to sell out on a lot of their releases, but the US Mint less so. When I visited the Denver mint last year, they still had stacks of numerous commemoratives for sale from the past few years in the gift shop. I bought one of the 2014 Civil Rights coins, which I was surprised to still see for sale despite its relatively low mintage. And the stuff keeps piling up. I had purchased some of the 5-ounce ATB hockey pucks, but even they start to wear a little thin after a while - plus I never bought them directly from the mint. I don't buy mint or proof sets and haven't for years. If I buy "collectors' only" coins, such as the Native American series, I buy them from dealers at coin shows for $3 - $5 a piece raw. I still buy ASEs, but again never from the mint directly. If I visit a city with a US mint I definitely visit and buy something in the gift shop, but that represents the vast majority of my direct mint buying over the past few years. All of that said, I don't think the US Mint is going anywhere. It's far too profitable. But we'll see what happens in a coin-free society if or when that happens.[/QUOTE]