U.S. Mint Collectors Forum in Arizona

As part of the launch events for the Arizona State Quarter last week, The Director of the U.S. Mint, Ed Moy, hosted a Coin Collectors Forum. The purpose of these Forums is for the Mint to get feedback from its customers about the Mint's products and services, but savvy collectors have found that these forums can be excellent sources of "inside information" about the Mint and the way its executives think about things and what their upcoming plans are. Before the typical Collectors Forum begins, Ed Moy personally greets and shakes hands with all of the attendees. Moy opens with an introductory talk, usually about high-profile upcoming special coin releases, and then opens the floor to questions. Although Moy occasionally dodges a question or two, his answers are generally candid and sincere, very unlike your typical high-level government agency bureaucrat.

We learned a few interesting new things at the most recent Forum held on June 1 in Phoenix. For instance, we heard some new Mint terminology: UHR. A few of the questions Moy answered at the Arizona Collectors Forum include:

• Where does the gold come from for the bullion coins the Mint strikes?
• How many of the U.S. Mint's gold, silver, and platinum bullion coins leave the country?
• Does the U.S. Mint strike coins for other countries?
• Is there legislation in progress to eliminate the penny?
• Is the U.S. going to get bi-metallic coins?

The most interesting fact to emerge from the Arizona Collectors Forum was that when Moy recently toured the Japanese Mint in Tokyo, he found one of our two countries' Mints to be sixteen times more efficient than the other, based on a measure of the employee to output ratio. So which nation's Mint is more efficient, the U.S. or Japan? The answer can be found at the end of the Q&A article U.S. Mint Collectors Forum in Arizona.