The United States Mint began rolling out its new website and ordering system late last night. Earlier this morning the agency officially announced that the site is live.
"The leadership and staff of the U.S. Mint is very excited about this achievement, which has been years in the making," Mint spokesman Michael White said in an e-mail.
Collectors can visit the new website at catalog.usmint.gov to see the layout changes, check out new navigation links and areas, manage their account information and, of course, shop for new coins and sets. The U.S. Mint on Saturday night had taken the old shopping system off-line as a part of the transition process.
A few of the website additions and features touted by the Mint include:
- a more user-friendly site,
- live chat with customers,
- more bandwidth for faster speed,
- eliminated "waiting room" on high web traffic volume days,
- streamlined product pages,
- redesigned check out page including one-page check out,
- additional shipping options,
- enhanced credit card verification technology, and
- enhanced search and track order functionality
On hitting the new home page, there is a video message from U.S. Mint Deputy Director Richard A. Peterson talking about some of the site’s upgrades.
In visiting the website this morning, we noticed a few links that needed updating. As with any website launch, expect some tweaking and other adjustments in the coming hours and days.
