U.S. Mint Director Reaches Out to Customers

By now, most coin collectors are aware that the U.S. Mint recently suffered an unprecedented outage on its Web site's Ecommerce section that lasted more than a week. Although I don't agree with the Mint's public relations aspect of handling of this outage, making facts nearly impossible to get to the point that rumor-mongering began to hurt its image, I am honestly moved by the sincere statement issued this afternoon by the Director of the U.S. Mint, Ed Moy:

A Message from the United States Mint

To Our Valued Customers:

The United States Mint temporarily suspended its online catalog recently while we shifted our online ordering capability from one provider to another. We didn't plan an interruption in service but, as the transition from one company to another took place, we realized that we couldn't guarantee to our customers that our online ordering system was completely reliable until the new provider had enough time to take over operations and make them secure.

During the transition to new service providers, we know that many of you tried to log in to the United States Mint's retail Web site and found a notice that the online catalog was unavailable. We also know that many of you called our toll-free Customer Service lines to place orders. Because of extremely high call volume, many customers were unable to get through or spent a long time waiting on hold. This is not the level of service that you deserve from the United States Mint and certainly not the kind of service that I want you to have.

I take full responsibility for the lapse in service and apologize to you for any inconvenience and frustration you experienced. I thank you for your patience while we improve our system of online operation. The United States Mint's service mission is to create the highest quality products for the United States and our customers, and we are working to make this vision a reality. I truly regret service interruptions and will take measures to avoid them in the future.

Sincerely,

Edmund C. Moy
Director
United States Mint

One of the Mint's biggest challenges moving forward will be to alter the impression they give to the coin collecting community that they really don't give a hoot about what we think. Certainly an effort is being made when Ed Moy flies all over the nation to host the Coin Collector's Forums, the main purpose of which is to share the Mint's future plans and get feedback from the public about its services. But any time something goes wrong at Mint, it seems the Mint personnel immediately close ranks and turn their backs to us.

Not that I can blame them, I guess. Remember that we're dealing with a U.S. government agency here, one that has to answer to a conflicting array of forces including Congress, the collecting community, the public at large, and the Treasury Department and its inherent security mandates. In fact, I think the culture of security that must exist in any government agency that prints and issues the money is a major factor in the Mint's lack of openness. The Mint, being part of the Treasury Department, is probably being pulled in two opposing directions. The public wants more transparency, while the Treasury Department wants them to keep certain things secret. Where the two policies collide is when the collecting community can clearly see that there should be nothing to hide, but the Mint closes ranks against us anyway. The classic example of this involves the inadvertent release of error coins. Error coins embarrass the Mint so they'd like to sweep it all under the rug, but collectors are fascinated by them and clamor for more information. Friction (and negative feelings on both sides) is usually the result.

To be fair, I have discussed this problem with the Mint's Deputy Director of Public Affairs, Greg Hernandez, and he is all for more transparency and enhancing the lines of communication with us. It is also clear that Ed Moy favors great openness and a meaningful two-way dialogue. Now, if we could just get all of the Mint's mid-level career bureaucrats and managers to agree, we'd practically be home free! :)