America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins Conditionally Released

Ending a four day moratorium on the initial release of the 2010 America the Beautiful 5 Ounce Silver Bullion Coins, the United States Mint on Thursday said they would be available for ordering beginning today, December 10, 2010.

The US Mint had planned on offering the .999 fine silver coins to its network of authorized purchasers on Monday, December 6. However, those plans were put on hold when the US Mint started receiving multiple inquiries regarding the availability of the coins, their limited mintage and the apparent excessive premiums being charged for them.

Five America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins™ will be released this year which mark the inaugural strikes in the new series from the US Mint. These coins are minted as a companion series to the circulating America the Beautiful Quarters® Program and feature similar designs emblematic of selected sites of national interest from around the United States.

All five of the 2010 circulating quarters have already been released, but the debut of the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins was pushed back owing to initial difficulties the US Mint experienced in producing them. Late in the year, the Mint was able to overcome the challenges inherent in the massive coins, but apparently not soon enough to stockpile an inventory to match their pent-up public demand.

According to the initial release statement, only 33,000 of each of the five 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins will be available. That relatively low number led to calls of frustration from those concerned over their availability and the premium being charged for them. Despite an initial warning from the US Mint to its authorized purchaser network on avoiding excessive charges, premiums of more than $120 per coin were being reported. This led the Mint to issue the following statement on Monday announcing a delay in their release:

The United States Mint issued a press release on December 1, 2010, announcing the December 6, 2010, availability of the 2010 America the Beautiful Ounce Silver Bullion Coins through the established network of Authorized Purchasers who, in turn, would make them available on the secondary market. Due to the limited availability of the 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin coins, public anticipation has been extremely strong. Since the press release was issued, the United States Mint has received numerous calls and inquiries from the public regarding premiums being charged for these coins. As a result, we are delaying the launch of this program. No America the Beautiful Ounce Silver Bullion Coins orders will be confirmed today.

That statement was sent to the Mint’s purchaser network. All bullion products of the United States Mint are sold through its network of authorized purchasers. This network obtains the coins in bulk from the Mint, then resells them for a small premium above the current spot price of the precious metals contained within them.

After having reviewed the situation, the US Mint late Thursday indicated the coin’s would be available for authorized purchasers beginning today, December 10. However, to remedy the issues confronting their release before, the Mint has added four major stipulations for buyers:

1. Authorized Purchasers shall make available for sale to the public all 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins that they acquire. The intention of this condition is to ensure that all 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins minted and issued by the United States Mint are sold to the public.

2. Authorized Purchasers may charge to their customers a price no higher than ten percent above the price at which the Authorized Purchasers acquire 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins from the United States Mint. Authorized Purchasers may charge their customers a reasonable shipping and handling fee; however, Authorized Purchasers may not charge any other fee, premium, or other expense to their customers to circumvent this ten-percent markup limitation. The intention of this condition is to ensure that members of the public can obtain these coins at a reasonable and affordable purchase price.

3. Authorized Purchasers must establish and enforce an order limit of one coin of each design for each household. A household is defined as all persons of a family, or living as a family, at a single mailing address. The intention of this condition is to ensure the broadest and fairest public accessibility to 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins, which are limited-mintage United States Mint products.

4. Authorized Purchasers may not sell, either directly or indirectly, 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins to their officers or employees. The intention of this condition is to ensure that 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins are available to the public and that Authorized Purchaser officers and employees do not have an unfair advantage over members of the public.

With these conditions in place, the 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins should start making their way into the hands of the public within the next few days. They include the:

• Hot Springs Silver Coins (Arkansas)
• Hot Springs Silver Coins (Wyoming)
• Yosemite Silver Coins (California)
• Grand Canyon Silver Coins (Arizona)
• Mount Hood Silver Coins (Oregon)

The current eleven Authorized Purchasers for US Mint silver bullion coins include:

• A-Mark Precious Metals (Los Angeles)
• Coins ‘N Things Inc. (Massachusetts)
• MTB (New York)
• Scotia Mocatta (New York)
• American Precious Metals Exchange, Inc. (APMEX) (Oklahoma)
• Dillon Gage Incorporated of Dallas (Texas)
• Prudential Securities Inc. (New York)
• The Gold Center (Illinois)
• Commerzbank International (Luxembourg)
• Deutsche Bank A.G. (Germany)
• Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. (Japan)

It should be noted that most of these companies are not set up to sell coins in a retail environment (directly to the public), as they typically offer the Mint’s bullion products only to other coin dealers and other bulk sellers. Many of the eleven distributors may choose not to purchase the America the Beautiful Coins from the US Mint as a result. In that event, any unordered coins would be made available on December 20, 2010, to those Authorized Purchasers who wanted more.