AP

It took only three days for almost 75 percent of the first two 2011 America the Beautiful 5-ounce coins to be sold to Authorized Purchasers.

The Mint is making available a mintage of 126,500 for each of the coins, which makes the total mintage for the first two coins 253,000.

Nine AP’s ordered a total of 183,400 coins honoring Gettysburg Military National Park and Glacier National Park April 25-27. The AP’s had until 3 p.m. April 29 to place orders.

“If there is a sellout, there is the possibility that the Mint could strike more coins,” said Tom Jurkowsky, Mint public affairs director.

The Mint is charging the AP’s $975 per coin, plus shipping. This time around, however, it has removed restrictions on the price and quantity of coins sold by the AP’s. When the 2010 coins were distributed to AP’s last December, the Mint set the sale price and limited the AP’s to selling one coin per household.

“This is going to be far easier for us, and really the way we do business,” said Michael Haynes of American Precious Metals Exchange.

APMEX was one of the few AP’s set up to sell to individuals when the 2010 coins were released. Most AP’s sell directly to dealers.

“For us, this is what we do,” Haynes said, “and removing all the restrictions just allows us to do business in the normal fashion.”

The restrictions on the 2010 coins meant the company, which handles more than 3,000 products, had to put in place different rules and software modifications for one product, Haynes said.

“It was a very challenging rule for us,” he said.

The nine AP’s who had ordered coins by the end of day April 27 were:

• A-Mark Precious Metals, Los Angeles, Telephone: (310) 319-0371
• American Precious Metals Exchange, Inc., Oklahoma, Telephone: (405) 595-2100
• Coins ‘N Things Inc., Massachusetts, Telephone: (508) 697-9600
• MTB, New York, Telephone: (212) 981-4510
• Scotia Mocatta, New York, Telephone: (212) 225-6200
• Jack Hunt Coin Broker, New York, Telephone: 800-877-7424
• Fidelitrade, Delaware, Telephone: 302-762-2500
• The Gold Center, Illinois, Telephone: (217) 793-8000
• Commerzbank, New York, Telephone: 212-266-7765

The fact that an AP ordered the Gettysburg and Glacier coins does not mean it will sell them directly to the public. It may choose to sell them to dealers, who in turn will sell them to the public.

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