AUDIO: Q&A WITH RHETT JEPPSON OF THE U.S. MINT

CM: For people who have never done your job--there have not been that many people in America that have been the Director of the Mint or the Principal Deputy Director of the Mint--what is a day in your work life like?

RJ: You know, boy, it’s a busy day. There are lots of interesting things that we get to do at the Mint. I tell ya, it’s been the privilege of a lifetime, really, to be here at the Mint for the past two years now. I wouldn’t say that any day, that there’s a certain rhythm to it. A lot of different things. We manage, essentially, three business lines with numi, bullion, and the circulating line. And then also, I think that protection is also a business line for us as well as we are entrusted with national assets at the mint. And so, it can vary across any of the issues that would come up in those lines in any given day.

CM: A few months ago you had a symposium, where members of the collector and dealer community met in Philadelphia. And it seemed like the Mint was trying to suss out a few key details to help out its numismatic division. What was your main takeaway from that event?

RJ: Well, the big take away I have from the symposium was the need for us to have this ongoing dialogue and engagement with the numismatic community. You know, we’ve had some declines in the community in sales and volume lately, and I think that we can help turn that around by being pro-active and engaging with the community... but also that we have a cross section of mutual interest in making sure that we have a vibrant, healthy numismatic community and that there are opportunities for us from all the different aspects of that community to make sure that we are working together as best we can to ensure that that community is healthy and that we have a strong numismatic market.

CM: It seemed that one of the observations that I made when I was at the event was that it seems that you really do have a conflict between the collector community - who can purchase the material directly from the United States Mint - and a segment of the rare coin industry’s dealer community that tries to act as an interlocutor, which tries to be an interlocutor... you know, basically buying material, further enhance its value or collectibility, and then also market that material. How does the Mint strike a balance between these two different types of buyer?

RJ: It’s one of the things that the Mint has tried to take as even handed an approach as possible. So, if you looked at all of the product on the numismatic side, we sell almost exclusively through the website. We do have a bulk dealer program, but it's only on really certain products. But the bulk dealers do buy 30% of what’s out there. So they are a big important community to us as well.

But, if you’ll notice that any of the first day drops and things like that, we sell it only through the website, right now, and we put household order limits and we try to really make sure that our individual collectors have the opportunity to take advantage of these coins.

To read the complete article, see:
CoinWeek Podcast #49: Q&A with U.S. Mint Principal Deputy Director Rhett Jeppson (www.coinweek.com/coinweek-podcast/coinweek-podcast-49-qa-u-s-mint-principal-deputy-director-rhett-jeppson/)

Wayne Homren, Editor

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