Comments on: Boys Town Commemorative Coin Release Ceremony on March 9

By: Seth Riesling

Seth Riesling — Sun, 05 Mar 2017 03:36:39 +0000

jim –

The Mint has a special “slush fund” that Congress allowed in the 1990s so they wouldn’t have to rely solely on the annual US government convoluted & political budget process since they need funds at end of Fiscal Year to start production for the next calendar year. This fund is used for promotional events such as the NPS ceremonies. But it is basically for the promo value since they stopped advertising on TV years ago.
I agree that the hotel event in DC will not sell much, but it will get local & national (at least in Boys Town, Nebraska (& Omaha) news coverage being that it is held in the nation’s capital.
By the way, the National Parks sell their own ATB quarters sets with their own packaging! They buy them in rolls on issue day for face value & compete with the Mint with their own special packaging! LOL. Some park gift shops have all sets since the beginning in 2010. I bought a few from one shop for 5 different parks nationwide once & they are nice & inexpensive of course.
Before this fund was set up, the Mint couldn’t even give a cent to kids at coin shows they attended by Federal law. Now, they give each kid a ATB quarter inside a small circular plastic holder. A nice thing for public relations.

-NumisDudeTX

By: jim

jim — Sun, 05 Mar 2017 01:15:22 +0000

Seth –
So who pays for the national park ceremonies?
I can understand why BT would rent a room in DC if they can’t afford the expense of a local ceremony but why even bother? The coins won’t sell as usual so it’s money not well spent for the little advertising they might get out of it.

By: Seth Riesling

Seth Riesling — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 20:02:36 +0000

jim –

This ceremony is not a government one & is sponsored & hosted by the non-profit Boys Town foundation. Anyone can attend (based on room capacity) at the hotel if you call or email them for an invitation. They will start the Washington DC event 2 hours after the coins are offered to everyone at noon Eastern time as usual by the Mint. The privately held event will only offer the Proof single versions of the $5 gold & $1 silver & 50-cent clad commemorative coins & will not have the 3-coin limited edition Proof set at the event. It is a fair event for everyone as such. The Mint’s lobby sales location at Mint headquarters in DC will sell all versions except the 3-coin Proof set since they stopped selling very limited edition coins & sets due to the gold Kennedy coin fiasco in 2014. (The two US Mint gift shops run by Aramark Corp. in Denver & Philadelphia only have a small offering of mostly common annually issued products & also cannot sell limited edition products with household limits anymore). It is as fair as it gets now.

-NumisDudeTX

By: jim

jim — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 18:41:48 +0000

So the 3 coin sets may be sold out even before the introductory ceremony starts.

They usually go to the site being celebrated for their ceremony but I guess a trip to Nebraska is too boring even for the rich politicians in DC.

By: Seth Riesling

Seth Riesling — Fri, 03 Mar 2017 11:52:35 +0000

Per the Mint’s email press release I received about this event a week ago, the 3-coin Proof set will NOT be a available for purchase at this charity event since it is a limited edition of 15,000 sets (with a household limit of 2 sets) & the Mint no longer sells special limited edition coins or sets at its 3 sales locations or at coin shows it attends with a US Mint sales booth.

-NumisDudeTX