The United States Mint rolled out a new ordering system Thursday, releasing a statement that explained it and its use in pre-selling their 2021 commemorative coins honoring Christa McAuliffe and the National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum.
With the new system, collectors can order the pair of commemorative products today but they will not receive them for several weeks to months — shipping begins March 17 for the 2021 Christa McAuliffe Silver Dollars and May 5 for the 2021 National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum $5, $1 and 50c Coins.
The portion of the Mint’s statement that explains their pre-order system follows:
"As part of the United States Mint’s (Mint) ongoing efforts to improve customer satisfaction, streamline production, and reduce program costs, the Mint will launch a new pre-order system and begin accepting pre-orders for its 2021 commemorative coin programs on January 28, 2021. Introductory pricing will continue to be in effect for the first 30 days of pre-orders. Anticipated product shipping dates are published on the Mint’s online catalog product pages.
By law, the Mint must recover all its costs associated with a commemorative coin program before it is authorized to pay program surcharges to the designated recipient organization. This includes the cost of production and assembly of unsold inventory and the costs associated with melting excess inventory after each program has concluded.
The Mint’s new pre-order system will extend and equalize the selling periods for both commemorative coin programs while simultaneously reducing potential surplus inventory, and is expected to reduce product backorders and improve both the customer experience and the likelihood that recipient organizations will receive program surcharges. The Mint believes that its new system will help manage commemorative coin inventory and control costs for these programs."
To order the newest products, visit the U.S. Mint’s online store of commemoratives.
