Once again, U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing online and telephone order systems were overwhelmed by response to a new product.
Within about 90 minutes of going on sale June 28, all 2,000 of the Texas Coinage and Currency Sets were spoken for.
The sets contain Series 2003 $1, $2, $5 and $10 Federal Reserve Notes with matching low serial numbers, all from the Dallas Federal Reserve district, as well as ?P? and ?D? versions of the Texas state quarter.
Issue price was $129.95 per set. An initial order limit of 25 sets per household was imposed.
"The response to this offering completely overwhelmed both our telephone order service system and our Web site, both of which experienced significant system failures," said BEP spokeswoman Claudia Dickens.
"The Bureau sincerely regrets the inconvenience and frustration that this has caused our many loyal and faithful customers," Dickens continued. "We are in the process now of devising the most equitable method to complete this offering and to resolve all customer concerns.
"We fully expect that the system failures experienced on June 28, 2006, will result in media and congressional inquiries. To that end we will be posting an explanation concerning this problem on the Bureau's Web site and returning telephone calls to inquiring customers as quickly as we can," Dickens said.
When viewed July 5, the BEP Web site said that analysis of the system failures was ongoing.
BEP's Web site address is www.moneyfactory.com.
