Bucket of Coins

As the world awaits the availability of the 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins also referred to as 5 oz America the Beautiful Silver quarter sets, to go on sale this month. One has to ask what is the fairest way to ensure the collector gets a shot at them.  I have been on all the named “distributors” websites and some have something about reviewing the “rules set by the Mint” while others have nothing about these coins. Several home shopping and auction sites are already selling the five coins for upwards of $5,000! It appears when they are officially offered to the general public, the cost will be under $900 for the five.  The biggest dilemma I see is there is no consistency of when these distributors are going to put them on sale. Today, January 3rd, was to be the anticipated release which had been communicated, now it appears some are saying it will be the middle of the month before they make them available. So unless you constantly check the distributor’s sites you may miss your opportunity to acquire one of the 33,000 sets. I’m not greedy, I just want one for my collection but I am not willing to pay $5,000 for a set of over-sized quarters even if they are made of silver.

I have seen that some people had pre-ordered and have received their sets already. To me, I think the Mint should do like they do everything else…sell them from their site and cut out the middle man! It shouldn’t take long for them to sell out and at least there would be some semblance of fairness with a set time for release.  So here I sit with the rest of America, wondering if I will be able to get a set. Wish me luck, as I do to all the other coin collectors out there!