The Mint's Numismatic Forum in Philly

Any idea how big a crowd they're inviting?

 

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I find this sort of ironic sort of as the mint in the mid 1960's were doing everything possible to curtail coin collecting . My how things change ...... one item you may tell them in a panel is to limit new items to one per customer until 45 days after first day issue. As well as mint to demand,not a set limit!
Yeah I know ducking the tomatoes now....but to keep the hobby going the YN'S should be able to obtain a new release without paying through the nose on a secondary market.
For an item that the value falls to a more realistic value in 6 months or less.
That said newbies to the hobby become frustrated over loosing value on a purchase that was hyper inflated .
One must realize there was a time you could buy a Whitman penny album and dang near fill it from circulated coins. Since those days are long gone....the NY or newbie are at the mercy of the sharks in the water and the smell of fresh blood.
This reminds me of my concert going days, at one time you could get a ticket to any show or artist no problem. Then all of a sudden tickets were sold out in minutes . Only to be made available at a nice inflated price.
It just took the fun out of something one was looking forward to. Yes I understand free enterprise ......as well as scalping !

 

The Mint has screwed the pooch often with regard to product releases and ordering limits. The big problem is that mintage limits can come from Congress, and the Mint has to try and figure out how to deal with that limit. If anyone that is going is tasked with this problem for their working group, I wish you luck.

 

Absolutely correct! Most mintage limits do come from Congress in their authorizing legislation. But the Mint has now, for the first time ever, sucked their very own mintage limits out of their own thumbs. The centennial BULLION coins are the first time they've ever done it, and they need to NEVER do it again.

 

The day has come. Expect a report tonight after the festivities conclude.

 

First impression: a well-placed grenade right now would behead numismatics completely. There's a_lot of star power in this room.

Second impression: Mark Salzburg (NGC) is the kind of guy you want at your back in a bar fight. He strikes me as someone who plays for keeps.

 

Kurt, I'll be on pins and needles until you report back what a great job the Ministers of the Mint are doing.

 

It is plain that there is no interest in this room, either on the part of the Mint or the attendees (aside a couple "radicals" like Kurt), in addressing the true needs of the end-user collector. This is understandable, because there's so much vested interest here in perpetuating a system which prevents the actual collector from easily obtaining a coin at the price the Mint requests for it.

And the Mint is obviously answerable only to the large dealer interests, because they either can't see or are in denial that they'd add significantly to their bottom line by minting as many coins as the collectors wanted.

In other words, exactly the scene I expected.

 

Dave's right. The collectors in the house (25% according to Mint personnel) are largely sitting there with their teeth in their mouths while dealers dominate the conversation according to THEIR vested interests. If collectors won't yell their backsides off, like I did, we will continue to get the short end of the stick. I WAS the radical in the room - me and one other guy and somewhat Scott Barman too. Dealers can intimidate some people, not me. I don't a give a ---- how many digits your stupid checkbook has. Lee Minshull is a creep any way you slice it.

 

The lobbyists with the biggest checkbooks always win. You should know that kurt

 

No they don't. They always get a seat at the table, but they don't always win. Sometimes the count of noses beats the count of bucks, but sitting quietly and taking lumps without pleading your case ALWAYS loses, yes.

 

The Mint spent the morning proving they know the problem - this hobby IS imploding. It's not even arguable any more. But they don't recognize their own fingerprints on the corpse that hasn't quite fallen over yet.

 

The stats they threw up were laughable, if alarming. They used the highwater mark - the State Quarter series - as the benchmark to prove everything was going downhill.

Of course it is, because that's the only time you ever did something that addressed the populace. Everything else they've done addresses the system, catering to the secondary market and those who are already committed-enough to throw three-digit figures (or more) at single-coin purchases. And then they lament the downturn in the market.

They're getting what they're asking for.

 

Some highlight info:
U.S. Mint customer list is down 60% from its high.
Core products down about 40%.
Gold and platinum down a relatively tiny bit.
Revenue down.
Net return to Treasury (profit) down.

NGC's modern coin slabbing business UP!
Lee Minshull Wholsale grinning like an idiot! Doing gangbusters.

Seems obvious to me. Slabbing and wholesaling are ruining the hobby! Q.E. Stinkin D.

The big dealers have one justified request - sell them mint products in capsules only and forget the OGP they don't want.

 

I also can't believe Mark Salzburg of NGC has the guts to BRAG ABOUT all the label collecting his firm is guilty of creating. As long as it makes him more money, who cares if it hurts the hobby at large? Moron.

 

2 + 2 = 4...QED...Which is what had to be shown.

 

From the reception over at the Mint: I snagged the very last 2014 FDR Coin and Chronicles Set in the Philly Mint's inventory. No more to be had in PHL.

So why is Don Rumsfeld on the FDR dollar?

 

When I think about all those Blue Velours that have given their lives to create Mint packaging. Oh the horror ... the horror.

 

"There are people in this room today whose private pecuniary interests are at odds with the long term interests of the health of this hobby, and THAT'S the 800 pound gorilla in the room." Me, today, at the Numismatic Forum.

 

The Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection is starved of budgetary resources unless they are supplemented by private donations.