Community Voice Responses (Sept. 26, 2017)

From the Sept. 1 Numismatic News E-Newsletter:

Were buyers of Enhanced Uncirculated Sets justified in canceling their orders?

Here are some answers sent from our e-newsletter readers to Editor Dave Harper.

It appears that once the speculators and dealers realized that they were not going to make large profits on the limited edition Enhanced Uncirculated Sets, they started cancelling orders. From a business standpoint, this makes sense. Why get stuck with hundreds or thousands of sets that will not sell and will eventually result in a loss? Not a good business decision. From a collector’s viewpoint, I am glad that some large orders were cancelled. I was able to get the few sets that I wanted directly from the U.S. Mint without having to pay the inflated dealer prices.

Steve Bass
Gardena, Calif.

I say no. You bought, you keep it. If you ordered only to make a secondary market killing, thereby preventing true collectors from ordering one, too damn bad! It’s about time some of these people get burned so that us small guys can get a new set.

Ernie Lurvey
Marshfield, Wis.

I certainly do not hold anything against them for cancelling. Maybe the Mint will learn something from setting no limits on the ability for dealers or whomever to purchase an ungodly amount of sets in the first place. If a decent household limit could have been in place, there would have been plenty to go around, and I bet very few would end up back on the Mint’s doorstep. This is all the Mint’s doing, and they can live with it.

Rich Escutia
Ottawa, Ill.

It was pretty obvious what happened here. The big coin companies jumped in and ordered large quantities of these coins in the hopes of raising prices on the secondary market like they have done with every release in the past number of years.

If people are like me and absolutely sick of a few buyers controlling the market, they gave up on these overpriced issues and have stopped buying these products. Now what to do with all the coins these dealers bought? Dump them back on the Mint, of course, which is what they did.

Until the Mint changes their policies and limits large buyers, things like this will happen. In the meantime I will stick to the older coins.

Mike Budzynski
Loveland, Ohio

I would not have ordered in the first place. Clad coins – I am sorry, but they are worthless if not made from .9999 silver. What a mistake by the Mint.

Dwayne Helmuth
Temecula, Calif.

Yes, there should be no cuts to these orders. After all, collectors order these sets in good faith. Why not fill them, like all other orders.

Gary Kess
Sherman, Texas

When someone returns a product that it is defective in some way, and this is the rule the Mint works by, I understand. I have been ordering from the U.S Mint since 1960 and have never had a defective-product return; in fact, I have never returned a product for any reason. I would venture to say the returns are profit driven and not something that the majority of "collectors” are doing but are instead done by people who desired to make a fast buck on the market. I ordered 5 sets: one to be broken up for my collections; one complete set for me; and the three remaining for resale, if someone desires to buy one.

Johnny Trigg
Mary Esther, Fla.