Bald Eagle Commemoratives On Sale
Tuesday January 15, 2008
The U.S. Mint began taking orders for the Bald Eagle Commemorative Coins today at 12:00 noon Eastern Time. There are three coins in this series, all being offered simultaneously in both Proof and Uncirculated finishes, plus there is a related bronze medal. The types include a $5 gold coin featuring a pair of Bald Eagles; the $1 90% silver Dollar coin featuring a Bald Eagle in flight; and the clad Half-Dollar coin, which features a Bald Eagle nest with two freshly-hatched chicks and third egg about to hatch. The coins will only be for sale during the specified ordering period which runs from January 15, 2008 to April 15, 2008. In addition, the period from January 15 through February 14 at 5:00 PM ET is considered to be the Introductory Sales Period. The coins can be bought at a slight discount during this initial time frame.Mintages will be limited to the coins which are ordered during the specified period, or the maximum mintages set by law, whichever comes first. As the press release for the Bald Eagle coins states, "the maximum mintage across all Bald Eagle Commemorative Coin options, including sets, is limited to 100,000 $5 gold coins, 500,000 silver dollar coins and 750,000 clad half-dollars."
The medal being made available in conjunction with the Bald Eagle Commemorative Coins Program is actually part of the 2003 National Wildlife Refuge System Centennial Medal Series. It will be available in a special set along with an Uncirculated Bald Eagle Silver Dollar, and will include materials that "highlight the journey of the Bald Eagle from near extinction to its recent removal from the List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife." Another special set for this series is the Young Collector's Set, which will include the clad Half-Dollar and materials that will help children to understand "the story of the recovery and restoration of our national emblem."
Unfortunately, I can't tell you which artists to credit for the wonderful designs that appear on these important coins because the Mint neglected to name them in the press release and as of press time, they don't appear anywhere else on the Mint's Web site. I know that Joel Iskowitz did the Silver Dollar Bald-Eagle-in-flight design because I just barely make out his distinctive "JI" in the photos of the coins. I'll update the rest of this artist/engraver information when I get it.
Here's a breakdown of the Bald Eagle Commemorative series offering, along with the normal pricing. Remember that if you order by February 14th at 5:00 pm, you can get a discount.
Bald Eagle Option and Price
Proof $5 Gold Coin - $319.95
Uncirculated $5 Gold Coin - $309.95
Proof Silver Dollar - $43.95
Uncirculated Silver Dollar - $37.95
Proof Clad Half-Dollar - $10.95
Uncirculated Clad Half-Dollar - $8.95
Three-Coin Proof Set - $369.95
Young Collector's Set - $14.95
Coin and Medal Set - $44.95
I was rather irritated to discover that the U.S. Mint chose this high-profile time to switch Web Ecommerce vendors! There is a notice on their Web site, in the section where you order the coins, that says the ordering portion of the site will be down for "the next couple of days." The notice then goes on the inform you that if you call the 800 number to place your order instead, you should expect "call volume to be high." Why would the average U.S. Mint customer notice higher-than-average call volume unless the Mint didn't raise the order-taking staffing levels to account for the increased influx of calls? Or does the Mint really expect the Bald Eagle program to be so incredibly popular that the calls would burn up the wires regardless of where the orders came in?
Update: The U.S. Mint has issued a statement regarding the Web site issues. I have more information about the Mint's Web site outage here.
(As my regular readers know, I love the U.S. Mint and generally try to defend them against the critics, especially when it comes to error coins, but this decision to take down the Ecommerce portion of their Web site during this particular period seems very odd. Almost as odd as the guy who lives 8 miles from the Denver Mint claiming to have found a Sacagawea Dollar with edge lettering in circulation, even though the Mint didn't release any Sacs into circulation last year! In other words, something doesn't add up here...)
United States Mint image.
Comments
The U.S. Mint did not actually begin taking orders for the Bald Eagle Commemorative Coins today at 12:00 noon Eastern Time. They chose this time make system changes , so there web order and phone order business was shut down. Brilliant timing ! I guess they stay up all night waiting for the mail to arrive, and after filling orders from the major dealers, they will let the citizens get in.
I have never been a conspericy buff but this makes a person wonder. Not even government worker could be this stupid. Please try to find out what is going on. Noone at the mint is reachable,website,phone or e-mail. I for one am pretty upset.
Just for your information, take a trip to Ebay and search out BALD EAGLE 3 PIECE SETS……at this time there are 11 listings for this item…..one seller in particular states “I have confirmed order number and email confirmation for 7 sets”. His id is jdg556 out of Cicero, NY.
Judge for yourselves my good people.
I was stumped to see the website was “out of order”. Knowing I have a slim chance of getting through via phone line, I tried anyway – for 30 minutes. Finally got through and placed an order. Even got confirmation email from the Mint. I have only one person to thank – the person who invented the redial button.
Well i got thru today and placed order for the 3 piece set, she said it was on backorder till feb 1st, now i wonder did i get one of the 25,000 or if its on backorder are they making more, have seen the ones on ebay, amazing people paying 570 bucks when they can just dial a phone, oh well i hope i get my 1 set
Ordered mine today. Was able to get through with little hold time and also can’t help but wonder if the 25K limit will stand. Seems very unlikely that three days after the window for ordering opened that they were still available.
With my faith in the U S Government at an all-time low, I feel this is just another scam to get prices moved up so that the close friends of the mint can make more money. Take the site down, disconnect the phones and cause a panic by instilling a fear in collectors – a fear that they may not get this issue.
I haven’t gotten any e-mails from the mint yet, for when new releases come out.
The site must still be out of order.
Haven’t been to their web site in weeks.
But i always get notice on the day of new releases.
Do you think the purchase of the 3 pc set is better than buying them individually. New to this collecting new coins. Any opinions would be welcome. I did order the 3 pc set mint said it would be shipped 03/01/08.
Bob,
Welcome to the coin collecting hobby! You’ve found the right place to learn about collecting.
As for whether it’s best to buy the sets or the coins individually, it depends on a couple of things. If all of the coins in the set are being sold individually, you can just do the math and buy the cheapest option. After all, we collect coins, not the packaging they come in! However, some U.S. Mint sets have a coin that cannot be gotten any other way. These are the sets that typically have the greatest rises in value. That’s not to say that a set made up of non-unique coins will never be worth a good premium, it’s just that historically, the sets that generally do the best are the ones with unique coins, and the sets that generally don’t do so well are the ones that combine coins you can buy singly, especially if you have to pay more for the privilege of buying them together.
Specifically, the Bald Eagle set has three non-unique coins in it. However it is very close to sell-out (if it hasn’t done so already) so who knows, it might be the rare exception!
Susan
I do not believe this