Comments on: Inefficiencies Cited in US Mint’s Bullion Coin Programs

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:42:16 +0000

IMO, this is just kicking the (PM) can down the road again, another GAO study to determine that the governmet has no business running any business and little credibility as a governing body.

I don’t think the government wants to mint less than 1 ounce of gold or less than 1 ounce of silver because it would provide a separate and viabile medium of exchange separate from the Federal Reserve Note which is backed by the full faith and credit (debt) of the US Government. Besides which a physical shortage pushes some people into riskier investments of paper PM’s which promise much and pay off in the aforementioned FRN’s. Just look at the premiums for 1/10 gold and 1/2 ounce silver and it becomes quickly clear how much of a threat the entire process could be to the paper money which has lost more than 96% of it’s value since being introduced less than 100 years ago.

By: Mark

Mark — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:13:33 +0000

“We had no difficulty in obtaining gold, silver and platinum in raw material form, but we experienced considerable difficulty in getting this raw material fabricated into planchets by our vendors in sufficient quantities to meet public demand.”

So, it’s been close to two years since the mint has produced a single platinum eagle. Even if the planchets were being fabricated by hand and shipped by covered wagon they should have some for sale by now. If the minting was done by “for profit” private enterprises in a competitive environment, we’d have coins available and all demand satisfied in no time. Of course the US Mint operates it’s bullion sales program as a “for profit” operation too. As the law states “Amounts received from the sale of gold shall be deposited by the Secretary in the general fund of the Treasury and shall be used for the sole purpose of reducing the national debt.” …But it seems they aren’t doing much to contribute to that end either.

By: Beercritic

Beercritic — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:54:03 +0000

The law is CLEAR. Produce enough coins to meet demand. ANY variance is ILLEGAL. Produce the coins, as mandated by LAW.

Sheesh!

By: dash

dash — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:47:20 +0000

@goldstandard
No. You will be required to fill out a 1099 if your purchases exceed $600 with a vendor for the entire year. This is NOT limited to one transaction. Unless you can find dealers who will sell you ONE coin per year and you use a lot of dealers, your attempt to circumvent the law will prove fruitless.
Go look at the health bill and do some more reading on the subject if you won’t take my word for it.

By: GoldStandard

GoldStandard — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 20:15:08 +0000

The new tax on reporting in 2012 will create more demand for gold demonations 10 grams and under as you can buy less than 600.00 at a time many times.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:42:45 +0000

Bob,
No need to be rude Bob. I am not stupid. As a matter of fact, I have been a coin collector for many decades and understand the process each coin goes through at the Mint. I am sure you are right about the Mint discovering any problem with planchets they receive.

However, there have been a lot of fake gold and silver coins introduced into the US and world markets in recent months. Many of these fake coins have been so well made that they have been purchased by very experienced coin dealers. That is why I am very sceptical.

By: BRYAN

BRYAN — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:37:36 +0000

Phil You are right, Not only must we mint the gold here we must keep it here, we must import as much gold as we can before the price triples, our govt can print dollars and countries cant control us if we have the gold ,gold is alot more rare than most people believe, as if we dont have enough gold in the entire world to give an ounce to each person alive. Not many people understand a chunk of gold metal buying a car but they do understand it if we mint it into lower weight certified coined metal .Importing actual precious metals for devaluing paper currency seems a good idea to me, especially when that metal is in high demand, we can create jobs ,any way of creating non paper pushing gambling wall street bet jobs that takes raw materials and create something that is demanded should be allowed to be done,if high net value people believe gold and silver will at the very least hold there value they would create alot of jobs by converting 10% or more to mining and the metals themselves,just like they did during the gold rush in 1849,this time its global.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:16:56 +0000

Phil, don’t be stupid. It is trivial to anyone to detect if there is a problem with the coins. It is easy to measure weight, density, dimensions, and other properties of the coins. Not everyone does every time they get a coin but enough people do that if we were getting a lot of faulty planchets people would know. Not to mention the mint would notice since it would throw their production process off.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:12:52 +0000

I agree with Richard.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:10:15 +0000

Having the raw metals sent outside of the USA to be made into blanks for minting in the USA makes me wonder if we are being ripped off when these metals are outside the USA. I cannot believe anyone in their right mind ever allowed this to happen.

Now I am sceptical of buying bullion coins or collector versions from the US Mint.

What foreign countries is the metal being shipped to?