You both make good comments on the American Liberty high relief $100 gold coin from last year, but that is not the full story behind the scenes. The only reason it was minted was due to a “deal” made between the U.S. Mint & congressional aides & the members of the U.S. Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee & U.S.Commission of Fine Arts (very powerful advisory people in Washington D.C.) It was not a commemorative coin & not a bullion version coin either & had no special packaging & was only an Uncirculated “business strike” without any special finish either. So what was the reason for it being issued? It is a long story, but i will try to cut to the chase. Former U.S. Mint Chief Sculptor-Engraver John M. Mercanti (who retired a few years ago ) broke tradition & designed a coin for the Perth Mint of Australia in 2014. He is most famous for his design on the reverse of the U.S. Mint’s most popular coin – the silver American Eagle $1 coins. His “defection” to work with a foreign Mint was seen by many as a slap in the face of the U.S. Mint & the powers that be in D.C. The members of the CCAC & CFA were so upset that they asked the U.S. Mint for & received design candidates for a new reverse design for the ASE to replace his original design used on all versions of the ASE since they were introduced in 1986. After much debate & reflecting on the wild success of the ASE coins & record sales in 2013 & 2014 of the coins, many members decided it would be crazy to change the design of a cash cow, but a few hardliners were adamant that his design be replaced for being a “traitor” so a deal was made to produce what all members of both advisory groups could agree would be a new high-relief gold coin with a new Lady Liberty design & a new eagle design on the reverse (the design of a new eagle that hardliners wanted to be the new ASE reverse design). The U.S. Mint also agreed with both committees that a “companion” high-relief silver medal with the same design would be issued to placate the hardliners. Everything went as planned until the Mint backed out of producing the “companion” silver medal in 2015 saying it might produce the medal at a later time the next year. By that time the gold coins were being struck & the hardliners were pissed off that the complete deal wasn’t followed through with, but they couldn’t do anything about the messy situation so late in the Mint’s production year schedule. The gold coins didn’t sell out immediately like Mint officials & advisory committee members thought even with a ridiculously high 50-coin per household limit at about a $400 premium over spot gold prices & very cheap packaging & even still had some coins left to take to the FUN coin show in Florida the first week of this month! The number of coins returned due to low quality (scratches, rim dings etc) was high making this whole debacle a bureaucratic nightmare for the Mint & all involved in its inception! This is the result of a silly, petty venture to save face in the city known for backroom deals gone bad – Washington D.C. The Mint was stuck in the middle of all this with Congress & all involved basically wanting to wash their hands of the nightmare they created. U.S. Mint coins & medals rarely are issued without some major controversy in the planning stages & this coin is no exception. Hopefully all involved in this damn mess can move forward & learn a good lesson about humility. I hope this information is useful to everyone here on this numismatic blog website. Thanks for reading my short version of the history of this particular coin. I welcome any questions you may have.

Happy numismatic collecting everyone!

-NumisDudeTX

The Mint’s own news release says that the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to mint these gold coins under Federal law 31 U.S.C. Section 5112 (i)(4)(C) (got that from the Mint’s website) and from what I read in blogs, etc he can set the mintage of this HR gold coin without having to follow a number given by Congress.

Here’s the link to the Mint’s news release.

https://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/insidethemint/?action=high-relief-gold-1

I read that the Mint was also going to issue silver medal versions of the gold coins, but I didn’t hear any stuff on the Mint producing silver coins .. even though I would have preferred a silver coin (or two) instead of this HR gold.

For me it was not only the crappy design, but also the fact that the Mint had touted this HR initially as an Ultra High Relief then switched it to HR (the item number is designated UH8) . They also heavily implied the silver medal version was also going to be released in 2015 but then abruptly yanked it without any explanation (sound familiar). If I remember it was even posted in their 2015 product schedule as “TBD” but it then disappeared.

Such is the US Mint and their workings …

Yup, I would also add “Listless Liberty” the Mint totally blew it on this one IMO and then they along with others try to hype it to the high heavens (along with a “generous” HH limit to try to engineer a fast sellout .. didn’t happen)