The 2016 Shawnee 5 oz. Silver Uncirculated Coin, released last Thursday, is now listed as “Currently Unavailable” on the U.S Mint’s Web site. The item sold 14,369 units on its first day of availability, and was up to 15,263 sales earlier this week.
The coin has a mintage limit of 30,000 pieces, so it’s likely it will become available again some time in the future, but this is an unexpected interruption in its availability. “Unavailable” is the Mint’s way of temporarily putting a full stop to sales, as opposed to putting something on “Back Order,” which still allows customers to make purchases for shipment at a later date.
“Unavailable” status at the Mint has historically been reserved for products that are close to selling out. Typically, the Mint will then follow this up by releasing small batches of an item as it fields final returns and prepares to conclude the run of the product.
We’ve seen “Unavailable” status used more frequently this year, however. The 2016 Mark Twain Commemoratives have all been Unavailable at one time or another since their releases, but they were ultimately made available for sale again in a timely fashion. Commemoratives have very large mintage limits, though, so the comparison may not be that useful. Many ATB 5 oz. Uncirculated coins have been discontinued by the Mint before nearing their mintage limits, often well before hitting 20,000 pieces sold.
For more information on the 2016 Shawnee National Forest 5 oz. Silver Uncirculated Coin, please visit the U.S. Mint’s Web site.
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Rich says
March 4, 2016 at 8:59 amSO if someone returns a coin to the mint for being unacceptable, they turn around and sell the coin to someone else ?
Coin Update says
March 4, 2016 at 9:18 am@ Hi Rich — As I understand it, they don’t re-sell items that are returned for quality issues. But they get returns for other reasons, too. Sometimes they’ll get a bunch of returns after an item doesn’t sell out as fast as anticipated and the product doesn’t gain value on the secondary market (you can sometimes see this reflected on the sales reports with negative corrections). And sometimes people just change their minds. – Dan
Dave says
March 4, 2016 at 9:21 am@rich – the mint refuses to answer that question!
Dave says
March 4, 2016 at 9:25 am@Dan – But I agree with your summary, there is not evidence the Mint ships back out product that has been returned for quality reasons. My biggest concern is that the major players will order 1000 of something, cherry pick the best for grading submission and then return the 200 weakest specimens. I have never seen a policy that prevents that. I try to order what I want now on the first day of availability in order to have equal chance of getting the best.
Coin Update says
March 4, 2016 at 9:31 am@ Dave – Good points. – Dan
jimr says
March 8, 2016 at 7:27 pmJust received 3 Shawnee p-pucks I’m on the auto order from the mint.2 were ok but the 3rd had 3 horrible areas on the rim of the obverse -also the box it was in was beat up so I’m sending it back.by the way paradisemint.com had GRADED pucks on sale 3 days before I got mine. Just saying