Bucket of Coins

I read where they are going to limit the rolls to a maximum of 6 rolls per time through the line. Additionally, there will be NO box sales at this event!  Does this make sense to anyone? If the demand is there go on and let people buy as much as they want and get them out of the storage areas!  All this creates is high prices for 50 cent rolls, the Mint should back two tractor trailers up the event and sell boxes to whomever wants them. I think it’s ridiculous for the Mint to not meet the demand of the public after making such a big deal about the release of these new 2009 pennies this year. Rather than hoard them in their own vaults, make them available to the public! This distribution system will continue to make the prices high and more difficult for collectors to obtain them. I guess $8.95 for a two roll Mint set of P and D won’t be so bad after all, since the Mint is obviously not about distributing the new pennies at face value!

Anyone else see the flaw in this?

I received email confirmation that my credit card has been charged and my 5 sets of the Lincoln Birthplace Log cabin roll sets have been shipped late last night. I figure they should be here before the weekend. I see where a lot of people are pre-selling these for $65 to $85 a set! I might put a set or two up for that kind of money!  So, now with those being shipped and the Mint offering subscriptions to the proof sets now, it will be interesting to see how many of copper cents they will have.  I will post photos upon receipt of my sets. Check your mailboxes and front steps!

The latest mintage numbers show that during March 2009, the Philadelphia mint produced 90 million cents while the Denver Mint produced just a mere 8 million cents.  Perhaps the small batch of Denver cents minted in March are for the US Mint D/P wrapped two roll sets available on their site? If 8 million was for these sets then 160,000 rolls are available and with the 5 set maximum…assuming that everyone ordered 5 sets means at least 32,000 people could receive them.

Adding these totals to what was produced in January and February bring the total mintages for Denver to 350.4 million and Philadelphia mint to 284.4 million.  It is unclear if these represent the last of the production of the Lincoln Birthplace cent or if it is the beginning of the Lincoln boyhood home in Indiana penny or if it’s the entire mintage for the year…stay tuned for this month’s totals.

Well I got my 2009 UHR $20 Gold piece back today from PCGS. It came back in a “First Strike” holder with a grade of MS69.  I am pleased with the results. I had thought that it would go MS69 and it did. The turn around time was quick…I mailed it on 3/10 and got it shipped back on 3/20!  I guess I will now see about purchasing another UHR $20 to keep in the original Mint packaging.  I can truly say this coin is a great example of an American Type coin and one to treasue for years to come.

I have been able to track down and confirm that the release of the “Formative years in Indiana” 2009 Lincoln cent is going to occur on May 14th at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. This penny is the one with young Abe with an axe reading a book portrayed on it. It had been speculated that the event may occur in Indianapolis at the Capital, this squelches those rumors as the Indianapolis news was the first source to confirm this locale.

As far as coin collectors go, with all the frenzy of the first release let’s hope the US Mint plans ahead and brings enough for everyone there to get a box or two if they want. Let’s hope after the US Mint has now realized that they can get $13.90 for a P and D roll, that they don’t offer those exclusively and do away with the “penny exchange”. I am sure that however many they bring they will sell them out and hopefully the people working the penny sales don’t get too greedy and buy them all up themselves or cut a deal with some dealers to get the vast majority of what has been brought for the release. People’s greed sometimes amazes me, so I am not going to sugar coat that speculation. At the prices the first release brought I would be willing to take a second mortgage and buy all they have! Ha!

For those of you wanting to travel there for the event, let me warn you…Lincoln City, IN is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I would expect dealers to be on hand to get their mitts on this second 2009 Lincoln release. But it should be interesting to see what kind of turn out will be there. I plan on being there since it’s about 1.5 hours from where I live, but I can see the vultures starting to circle now.

Just like clockwork, at 12 PM EST today, the $8.95 + $4.95 shipping two roll sets went on sale at the US Mint website. Orders are limited to 5 per household. Those of us who attempted to order more five were surprised to find out there was a limit. It’s been rumored that maybe these rolls contain the 95% copper cents we have been hearing about due to the lofty price of these 50 cent rolls. It is a good opportunity for coin collectors to get their hands on BU rolls from both Mints.

It is interesting to see that they are back ordered a whole another day already…sounds like a money maker for the Mint already!

It appears more 2009 pennies were minted during the month of February raising the total for the Philadelphia mint to 194.4 million and the Denver Mint to 342.4 million. It is not clear whether or not this was the minting of the new 2009 Lincoln Formative years penny or more of the 2009 Lincoln birthplace log cabin penny. Either way the production numbers are super low as stated in a previous post, the US Mint is usually in the BILLIONS of cents minted by this time of the year. Hopefully a breakout of the four types of 2009 Lincoln’s will be available in the future rather than a running total.

It still appears that the Philadelphia mint is producing far fewer than Denver at this point so I am trying to gather as may Phillies as I can!

Also it appears the Mint is going to be selling rolls 2009 Lincoln Birthplace Log Cabin from both mints for $8.95 + $4.95 for shipping beginning March 13th.

Yesterday was like Christmas all over again for me. I went to my PO Box and both of my orders from the US Mint  were there waiting for me!

I had heard rumors of the 2009 proof Lincoln dollars being struck through grease, being chipped, or dull. After close inspection the ones I received are as nice of proofs as I have received from the US Mint. I am very satisfied with my purchase. I have to decide now do I send them in for grading or just keep them in their original packaging and stow them away in my Safe Deposit box for safe keeping?  I am tempted to send one in just to see how it grades out.

One of my two Lincoln Silver Proof Dollars

The same can be said about my new 2009 UHR  Double eagle. It is truly flawless. The presentation case it came in is super nice as well. I do have to say I was kind of surprised about the size of the new UHR double eagle. I was expecting a coin in similar size as the original Saint-Gaudens but it is closer to the size of a half dollar and double the thickness if not more. I am glad I purchased it. I understand that now that it is in my possession I have a brief window of opportunity to send it in and have it slabbed in a First Strike Designation. I have examined it under 16x magnification and I truly do not see any marks.  The cut off is supposed to be 3/11/09 for PCGS submittals.  So I have a few days to decide what I want to do since it is a really nice item in the presentation case. I don’t plan on getting rid of it anytime soon.

Certification and my UHR Double Eagle

Upclose with my UHR Double Eagle

It may be worthwhile to send it in as it appears a large number of the people who ordered are not going to receive theirs in time. I am not sure what to do at this point.

As said in my previous post, the 2009 Ultra High Relief Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle was shipped today. I was surprised to find out via email that the 2009 Proof Lincoln Silver Dollars I ordered are being shipped today as well!  This is great news!  I have have expectations for both of these collectible coins.

Now I wonder where my 2009 Uncirculated Lincoln Silver Dollars are?  I am speculating based upon past trends on Special commemorative collectible coins produced by the US Mint that they are probably going to be fewer of these UNC Lincoln Silver Dollars produced than the proof versions.  I have to admit I have a soft spot for Proof coins but having both types of these coins makes things seem complete.

My next goal is to round up some rolls of the Harrison Dollar coins from the Presidential Dollar series. I have a friend in Texas that obtains a few rolls of the Denver minted dollars and trades with me for the Philidelphia minted dollars. I don’t think they’ll ever amount to much in my life time but I am being the good coin custodian that I am and saving them for future generations.

Lastly, I got a few boxes of the new Native American Sacagawea Dollars, I have to say I do like the design of the reverse on the 2009 coin. Looks like the next “hot ticket” will be the second 2009 Lincoln penny here in a few months. It’s a good time to be a collector!

I placed my order for the new 2009 Saint-Gaudens Ultra High Relief Roman Numerals Gold $20 Double Eagle (Now that’s a mouthful) on January 23. Not to my surprise I was told emailed that the gold coin was back ordered. I ended up getting a total of three emails stating that this exciting new collectible coin was to be shipped to me on March 27th.

As most of you may or not know, the US Mint does not charge your credit card until it’s time for your order to be shipped. So tonight, I was reviewing my credit card statement and yesterday and there is a “Pending” charge from the US Mint for my locked in price of $1189 + shipping.  I figured the US Mint would honor that price…at least they had better. These 2009 UHR Gold Double Eagles have gone up in price as gold has over the past month. I had wished I could have ordered more but with the delays seen with the first batch of these gold beauties, the US Mint would probably been backlogged for months and received enough requests for entire mintage to be sold out.

Needless to say, I am anxious to get this coin, I have always been a fan of the Saint-Gauden Double Eagles and this is a fitting tribute to a great piece of American coinage and coupled with the four 2009 Lincoln penny releases this is a great year for coin collectors everywhere!  I’ll post a photo upon receipt of mine!