Free Republic

Over at TPM, Ryan Reilly has an intriguing post about the interest of some tea partiers for a new circulating dollar coin because it supposedly will save the federal government money.  This follows a story in the Huffington Post from a week ago about how Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) introduced a bill that would eliminate the dollar bill and substitute dollar coins.Here's some very personal and U.S. history about the dollar coin and why this is a terrible idea that is really nothing more than a corporate subsidy.Congress in the late 1990s mandated that the U.S. Mint create a new circulating...

RENO, NV - The U.S. Mint has temporary suspended the sale of several silver collector coins and sets including the uncirculated American Silver Eagles and the American the Beautiful Five Ounce silver coins. Plummeting silver prices prompted the Mint to initiate several product suspensions on Monday.

In a dimly lit underground vault a block from Camden Yards, the Federal Reserve is holding millions of dollars in cash that nobody wants... But a 2005 law requires the reserve bank to keep ordering coins regardless of its stockpile, and so vaults in Baltimore and around the country are filling up. ... a 2008 Harris poll that showed 76 percent of Americans prefer paper money. It costs 30 cents to make a $1 coin, but the Fed purchases it for face value - and the U.S. Treasury pockets the difference. In 2010, the Mint put about 400 million $1...

The year 2013 might go down in the annals of numismatics as significant as 1933 when gold coinage was suspended or 1965, the year copper-nickel began to displace the former silver coinage. That’s the opinion of Deputy Mint Director Richard Peterson, who has been the top executive at the U.S. Mint since Ed Moy resigned the directorship at the end of last year. He was speaking at his Aug. 19 press conference at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money held in Rosemont, Ill. It will be in 2013 that Peterson will have to go back to Congress with...

A jeweler’s heirs with a cache of rare $20 gold coins will fight for the right to keep them when they square off in court this week against the U.S. Treasury. Treasury officials charge that the never-circulated “double eagles” were stolen from the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1933. They could be worth $80 million or more, given that one sold for nearly $7.6 million in 2002. The coins come from a batch that were struck but melted down after President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the country off the gold standard in 1933

Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, has one question for the U.S. Mint: why is there a coin shortage? He is aiming to get to the bottom of this during a scheduled April 7 hearing of his U.S. House Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy to examine the bullion programs at the U.S. Mint. “We are going to try and find out what the Mint has done so they can give us a better answer as to why there is a shortage. Why can’t they keep the supply of coins up?” said the congressman in an exclusive interview with Kitco News. Demand for...

Sales of the United States Mint's American Silver Eagle bullion coins were slower in the latest week. However, the slow down seems to be the result of the allocation program currently in place, as opposed to a reduction in demand. Sales for Gold Eagle bullion coins dropped to the lowest weekly total for the year to date. For the weekly period ending March 9, the US Mint recorded sales of 668,500 of the one ounce Silver Eagles. This compares to 1,509,000 coins sold in the previous week. Since the start of sales for the 2011-dated coins, the US Mint has...

Is The U.S. Mint Going To Change The Metal Content Of The Nickel?Wednesday, March 9, 2011Robert Wenzel The current composition of the U.S. nickel is 25% nickel and 75% copper. It currently costs roughly 7 cents worth of this metal combination to make a nickel. Not a very profitable operation for the U.S. Mint. This may be change. The United States Mint announced on Monday that it is requesting public comment from all interested persons on factors to be considered in conducting research for alternative metallic coinage materials for the production of all circulating coins. According to the Mint: These...

Silver reached a new 31-year high of $36.76 an ounce on Monday, extending its explosive run of price appreciation. Since last August, white bullion has gained over 94 per cent. Growing inflation concerns coupled with intense physical demand will likely lead to even higher prices; but increasing bank short positions in the metal mean that investors should watch for price volatility. Last week brought news that the US Mint had again suspended production of its Silver Eagle coins, citing “unprecedented demand” as the reason. In February King World News quoted Dave Madge of Canada’s Royal Mint, who noted that “sourcing...

Americans are a tight-fisted people when it comes to their dollars. So in order to replace the paper currency with dollar coins -- a long-advocated move that could save the government an estimated $5.5. billion over 30 years -- the General Accountability Office called on Congress, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to help yank the $1 note from circulation. In the past 20 years, the GAO, Congress' investigative arm, has issued four recommendations for a switch to metal dollars in order to save all the money spent to replace worn-out dollar bills. Dollar bills last longer than they used...

The U.S. Mint has begun the process of research and evaluation, eventually setting the stage for new coin compositions, as well as potentially changing bullion coin allocations. The U.S. Mint Monday announced it is seeking public input on factors to be considered in research and evaluation for alternative metallic coinage materials to be considered in the production of all circulating coins. The announcement, which is a result of The Coin Modernization, Oversight and Continuity Act of 2010, is setting the stage for a major overhaul of the metals composition of coins and how the Mint is going to manufacture them....

The United States Mint is reviewing the pricing of its products due to soaring silver prices, according to a US Mint official. Sales of at least one of its sets have been suspended until the review process is complete. The Mint currently has a pricing policy in place for its numismatic gold coins. Based on it and the prevailing cost of gold, the US Mint may adjust collector gold coin prices weekly. It does not have a similar pricing system in place for its numismatic silver products. "Recently, the market price of silver has risen substantially. As a result, the...

NEW YORK, (Reuters) - The U.S. Mint's American Eagle silver coins sales are set to rise to a record above 4 million ounces in November, as a European sovereign debt crisis and economic uncertainty prompted individual investors to bet on silver and gold as safe havens. Total sales of the popular one-ounce silver American Eagles rose to 4.2 million coins in November, the highest monthly sales since their introduction in 1986. In October 3.2 million one-ounce Eagles were sold, the Mint's web site showed on Tuesday. The figure does not include sales from Nov. 30 but is already well above...

On Thursday, the US Mint notified its primary distributors that it was immediately raising the premium it charged for the bullion-issue Silver Eagles by 50 cents per coin. The increase brings the total premium that primary distributors pay to $2.00 above spot, or about 9.1%. Almost certainly, there will be a quick increase in the buy and sell prices at which common-date earlier Silver Eagles trade. In my September 10, 2010 CoinUpdate column I had speculated that the US Mint would be likely to raise its premium before the release of the 2011-dated coins in January. I further anticipated that...

While the obverse (heads) continues to bear the familiar Victor David Brenner likeness of President Lincoln that has appeared on the coin since 1909, the reverse features a union shield with a scroll draped across and the inscription ONE CENT. The 13 vertical stripes of the shield represent the states joined in one compact union to support the federal government, represented by the horizontal bar above.

Will the increased cost of base metals finally bring about a change to the composition of coins? President Obama's recently submitted 2011 Budget includes a proposal to allow the United States Mint greater flexibility in the material composition of coins for the purpose of reducing production costs. Since 2006, it has cost the US Mint more than face value to produce and distribute the penny and nickel. This has led many to debate the merits of eliminating the lower denominations or at least altering the compositions. In 2008 a bill was introduced known as the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings...

The United States is honoring our Nation's Presidents by issuing $1 circulating coins featuring their images in the order that they served in office. The United States Mint issues four Presidential $1 Coins each year, with Presidents Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, and Lincoln being honored in 2010. Each coin has a common reverse design featuring a striking rendition of the Statue of Liberty. These coins feature large, dramatic artwork, as well as edge-incused inscriptions of the year of minting, or issuance, E PLURIBUS UNUM and the mint mark. In 2009 "In God We Trust" was moved from the edge to the...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States Mint today announced the new design that Americans will see on the reverse (tails side) of Native American $1 Coins next year. The design, based on the theme "Government - The Great Tree of Peace," depicts the Hiawatha Belt with five arrows bound together, with the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, $1, Haudenosaunee and Great Law of Peace. The United States Mint will commence issuing these coins in January 2010, and they will be available throughout 2010.

The U.S. Mint has announced that will stop selling 1-ounce gold bullion coins. Demand has been so strong that they've effectively run out of 2009 American Eagle coins. They sold 124,000 coins in November alone, after selling 115,000 in October and September. Have no fear, they plan to resume coin sales in early December. Reuters via CNBC: Produced from gold mined in the United States, the 22-karat American Eagles have been novel items among collectors and investors since their introduction in 1986. Each coin has a face value of $50 but it is sold by authorized dealers at a premium...

"The 2009 design depicts four faces representing the diversity of our Nation, with the clothing and hair weaving together symbolizing the principle, To Form a More Perfect Union."