MORE ON THE OCTOBER 2016 U.S. MINT FORUM

After lunch, the attendees were each assigned to one of seven breakout groups to discuss particular subjects to present to Mint personnel. The subjects covered were Packaging, Mintage/Household Order Limits, Medals, Who is our Customer of the Future/Customer Engagement, Working with Youth, Historic Design Reproduction, and America the Beautiful Quarters Follow-on.

Although I would have been pleased to contribute on any of these themes, the one that I would most have enjoyed, Working with Youth, was the group to which I was assigned. To give you an idea of the caliber of the attendees, this group included Dr. Feingold, Mary Burleson, two major national coin dealers, a small scale online dealer, a collector and me.

The reports from these groups tended to be “small picture” ideas. For instance, the group that discussed packaging asked if it would be possible to make available some of the numismatic coins either 1) in capsules only for bulk sales where the buyers would likely be sending the coins to grading services (and at a lower selling price to reflect the lack of boxes and certificates), or 2) to put coins in flat sleeves so that they would fit in safe deposit boxes or vaults more efficiently yet would still be in original US. .Mint packaging for products owned by precious metals Individual Retirement Accounts. The Mint staff said that these ideas might be possible to implement soon since packaging was not specified in the authorizing legislation for coins.

The group that discussed mintages and household order limits acknowledged that there were some problems with insufficient transparency of the ordering process for new issues. They suggested that the Mint consider a couple of ideas. First, upon initial release, the Mint might set low order limits in order to allow as many ultimate collectors as possible to have the opportunity to purchase the coins and sets. Then, a few days later, the order limits could be raised so that dealers seeking bulk quantities could do so easily. One proposal for mintage limits was to accept orders for a 30-day period, strike enough coins to fill these orders, then cut off orders. This would be a change from current specifications in authorizing legislation on the mintage limits.

The suggestions from the other groups have largely been incorporated in my analysis submitted to the Mint earlier this week, as detailed at the end of this column. This tends to focus more on a “big picture” perspective.

One subject that did not really come up is that there is an inherent conflict between the U.S. Mint serving collectors directly yet also working with coin dealers to help sell more of these products. If the Mint charges dealers the same price as collectors would pay, that discourages dealers from handling the newest issues. If the Mint sold to dealers at discounted prices, some dealers may charge the public a price lower than the Mint and divert potential customers away from the Mint – which has happened under some past wholesale programs.

The attendees expressed a general view that U.S. Mint staffers were genuinely interested in receiving this outside feedback. When asked whether another such program should be repeated, the response was overwhelmingly in favor. When asked how often, the responses ranged from every six months to five years, with most advocating once every year or two years.

To read the complete article, see:
Mint holds forum (http://www.numismaticnews.net/article/mint-holds-forum)

During the afternoon, participants split into teams to discuss such topics as Mint packaging, the setting of mintage maximums and household limits for products, and historic design reproduction, the team of which I was a member.

Members of this team largely agreed that reusing historic designs can be a good thing for the hobby, but that legal restrictions imposed on the Mint by federal law severely hamper the effectiveness of programs like the 2016 Centennial coin series to draw in new collectors. The Mint struck the three coins, originally issued in silver 100 years ago, in gold because it has broad authority to issue gold coins without seeking congressional approval. However, issuing those coins in silver would have required an act of Congress, literally.

Many of the team members would like the Mint to issue historic designs in their original specifications for collector sale, and in current compositions for circulation. Furthermore, we liked the idea of issuing the circulating versions in fairly small numbers, randomly salting them among modern designs, and then encouraging young collectors to search for them aided by an app on their phone, as in the recent Pokemon craze. This, however, would require changes to federal law, to give the Mint more leeway than it now has to issue coins. Such changes are possible (for example, the hobby drove passage of the Hobby Protection Act of 1973 and the Bicentennial coin redesign of 1975 and 1976 through concerted lobbying efforts of Congress). However, such changes will require a collaborative effort by many in the hobby. Are we up for that?

To read the complete article, see:
MINT FORUM PARTICIPANTS LOOK TO THE FUTURE AND CALL FOR CIRCULATING HISTORIC DESIGNS (www.coinworld.com/voices/bill-gibbs/2016/10/mint_forum_participa.html)

One Numismatic Forum participant opined that there’s a difference between collecting coins and buying coins. He noted history, people, stories, and relationships as things that attract collectors and keep them in the hobby. According to a Mint official, its recent feature articles about Ronald Reagan, published online, increased not only the amount of reading time spent by customers at www.USMint.com, but also the rate at which they placed orders. Another participant observed that in China, many coin buyers are in their 30s. “They’re buying coins on their cell phones,” he said. “Banks sell coins. There’s a tremendous push to celebrate their heritage and culture.” He suggested that if we effectively communicate coins’ history to kids in the United States, they’ll respond. He also said we need to get creative for the female audience, as the comic-book industry has with great success.

Another participant pointed out that younger generations of Americans rarely see and use coins—and the same for many of their parents. Day-to-day transactions are conducted with credit and debit cards, phones, and apps. This presents a challenge when it comes to engaging young potential collectors. Still, the recent memory of the huge success of the State quarters program, which attracted tens of thousands of young collectors to the hobby—at least for a time—offers hope that coins can be relevant to them, even as countless other distractions compete for their time and attention.

There was discussion about promoting numismatics to school boards, to encourage using coins as educational tools. One participant pointed out that educational curricula already are jam-packed with state-mandated requirements, making it difficult if not impossible to shoehorn new concepts into the school year. Another, however, suggested that standalone modules could be written up, maybe connecting coins to different months or seasons, giving teachers the option to plug them into their lesson plans as supplemental materials when the opportunity arises.

Other ideas from the Numismatic Forum included:

• connection of coins to cultural traditions (e.g., gift-giving)
• creation of hobby books for children
• mass-marketed packages (with a Red Book, a three-month membership to the ANA, a subscription to Coin World or Numismatic News, etc.), sold in stores
• focusing on kids’ motivations: competitive spirit, getting high scores, sharing, gaming
• the value of a coordinated marketing campaign, like the “Got Milk” program

To read the complete article, see:
“Invigorating the Coin Collecting Hobby,” Part 3: Customer Engagement, and the “Mint Customer of the Future” (http://mintnewsblog.com/2016/10/invigorating-the-coin-collecting-hobby-part-3-customer-engagement-and-the-mint-customer-of-the-future/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
THE OCTOBER 2016 U.S. MINT FORUM (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n42a25.html)

Wayne Homren, Editor

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web