Another look at Mint kiosk numbers

The Mint has supplied me with some additional figures since I wrote my blog Tuesday about the end-of-the-month planned closure of its sales kiosk at Union Station.

I think they are worth looking at.

They also provide me with an opportunity to clarify a convoluted sentence that I wrote on Tuesday. The Mint would have to pay $180,000 in rent each year for five years if it renewed the lease at Union Station.

The way I wrote the sentence on Tuesday, it is easy to reach a conclusion that the $180,000 was the cost for five years rather than the $900,000 that it the true five-year total.

It is nice to be read, even if it means brushing up on plain writing from time to time.

Sales at the Union Station kiosk were down in the first 11 months of the fiscal year that ends in September. The exact sales amount is $1,152,771 compared to the 12-month figure in 2012 of $1,375,097.

Obviously, with one month to go, some of the gap will be filled in, but the entire difference of $222,326 is not expected to be made up by sales recorded in the month of September.

On the other hand, sales during the first 11 months of the fiscal year at the Mint Headquarters kiosk were somewhat lower than the Union Station location, coming it at $1,010,660. But the Mint says this location is profitable.

The difference is that at headquarters, the sales kiosk pays no rent.

Tom Jurkowsky, the Mint’s public affairs director, points out that annual sales at the headquarters kiosk have grown three years in a row and will likely add a fourth year to this winning streak by Sept. 30.

The Mint is looking for a cheaper sales location to replace the Union Station kiosk. Cheaper is good as is one that would have less complicated accounting..

Jurkowsky pointed out that in addition to the $180,000 fixed rent at Union Station, the Mint has to pay what is called overage rent of six percent on monthly sales totals over $100,000.

The exact amount of the Mint’s expected 2013 profit at headquarters was not revealed, nor was the size of the loss at the Union Station kiosk, but I imagine these numbers will be easier to come by after the fiscal year closes.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2013 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."