Rail Splitter Penny Off to Rollicking Start!
An estimated 3,000 people turned out at the launch of the Lincoln Rail Splitter (Formative Years) Cent in Lincoln City, Indiana last Friday. Most of those attending didn't even bother to take seats in the amphitheater to watch U.S. Mint Director Ed Moy formally launch the coin; they were more interested in getting in line to make sure they got their allotment of six rolls of the highly sought-after new pennies. Michael Zielinksi has an outstanding write-up of the event, including some great photos, on his MintNewsBlog.com site.
The U.S. Mint also put the pennies up for sale on its Web site in a 2-roll set. The sets include one roll from each Mint that strikes circulating coinage, Philadelphia and Denver, and are priced at $8.95 per set. (The Mint also adds a $4.95 shipping and handling charge to all orders.) During the first weekend of availability, more than 200,000 sets had been sold. There were some rumors that the sets had sold out at one point on Thursday afternoon (the 14th) but this may have been caused by the Mint's Web site changing the order status from "In Stock" to "Backordered." The Mint has said in the past that this is an automatic event on the site, triggered when a predetermined sales plateau is reached.
As of this writing (Wednesday morning, May 20) the 2-roll sets are available on the Mint's Web site, with a stated shipping date of July 15, which clearly implies inventory is available. Heck, why not? The Mint is charging nearly 9 cents each, exclusive of shipping, for a one cent coin. You can buy bags of wheat pennies cheaper than that!
Ebay sellers are getting even more money for their Rail Splitter Cents! Single rolls are selling for $20 to $35 each, with First Day of Issue postally-stamped rolls getting slightly more. Some folks are selling 6-roll sets on Buy-It-Now offers for $149.00 and getting buyers at this price. Loose Rail Splitter pennies are selling for about $2.50 to $3.00 each, usually in batches of 3 to 5. Virtually all of the auctions are for Philadelphia-minted coins, as these are the ones that were made available for purchase by the U.S. Mint at the Lincoln City event and at the Mint's three Washington D.C. locations.
You can see the new penny designs in my 2009 Lincoln Cent image gallery. I also have the designs for 2010, which are currently under consideration, in my gallery of the 2010 Lincoln Cent proposed designs.
Stay informed about new coin issues and other U.S. Mint news by subscribing to my free weekly About Coins newsletter now!
Comments
Wasn’t it mentioned a while back that the rail splitter mint sets would be limited to 100K just like the log cabins?
THESE COINS WILL BE WORTHLESS NOW!!!!200,110 THOUSAND SETS MULTIPLYED BY 100 = TO OVER 20,000,000 PENNIES SOLD IN 4 DAYS…..AND THERE STILL SELLING…….IM CANCELLING MY ORDER RIGHT NOW
I agree. How did you find out how many have been sold already. I remember seeing that the mintage number was only 96,000 sets but now can find it on the mint web site anymore. I might just cancel my orders as well.
Could not believe that threedollarprincess on ebay has a unopened 50 roll box of the new formative years cent for sale. So much for limits that they put on the rest of us.
Are we suprised that the mint decided to sell more of the formative year roll sets giving the huge demand for the first set. I am just annoyed at all the sites and pundits who said the mint was issueing only 96,000 of the sets. Is there a limit to what they will sell?
I CANCELLED MY ORDER AND ADVISE YOU COIN COLLECTERS TO DO THE SAME…I JUST TALKED WITH A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE US MINT AND SHE SAID THESE COINS MIGHT NOT STOP SELLING UNTIL NEXT MONTH OR SO…….THESE PENNIES WILL NOT ONLY BE WORTHLESS…….BUT WILL BE VERRY COMMON…..THE DAMN US MINT TRICKED US….THEY LIMITED THE BIRTHPLACE PENNY ROLLS TO 96,000 BECAUSE THEY KNEW THE PRICES ON THOSE ROLLS WOULD GO UP…..AND THOUSANDS OF COIN COLLECTORS WOULD BE RUSHING FOR THE NEXT SET UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT THERE WOULD BE ONLY 96,000 OR SO MINTED……THEREFORE INCREASING THEIR GROSS REVENUE AT THE EXPENCE OF US COIN COLLECTORS…..
I placed my order on the 14th and both the website & the confirmation email had an expected ship date of May 29th. The track order page was later changed to match the website change to an expected ship of July 15th. Today, my track order page says “In stock and reserved” for the penny rolls. I was online at noon but due to a horribly underpowered website, I did not get my order confirmed until 12:41. By my calculations, even with this flurry of orders, since my order on March 26th, the mint has averaged only about 6500 orders per business day, down from their historic average of over 11,000 orders per business day. This is part of why it is difficult for me to cut PBGS any slack. Even with average order pace below 60% of history, they are unable to keep up. How long would we have to wait if orders were coming in at what PBGS should have based their bid on, the 11,000 per day pace?
Clair
I’d say that’s a pretttty sneaky way for the treasury to raise taxes.
coiny
I know a few people that ordered 5 sets at the opening and have now canceled their orders. How ironic that it now takes the mint so long to ship that we have all the opportunity to cancel and leave them holding the bag (of pennies). I think that if many cancel, the mint won’t play this game again. Glad I didn’t waste a trip to Indiana as I am about 3 hours from Lincoln City.
Wow. Believe it or not, this morning I received an email from the mint saying my rail splitter pennies had been shipped! This after expecting to get them in July or August. Perhaps everyone canceling their orders has caused the mint to crack the whip on PBGS. Or perhaps I’m just lucky.
My only problem with the fact that the Lincoln penny rolls are suddenly shipping is what that means to the first-in, first-served policy. There are many people waiting for in stock coins to ship and all of a sudden PBGS has stock (literally just a couple of days after saying it wouldn’t until July 15th) of the Lincoln rolls and starts shipping them. They also seem at last to have dumped the “double charge” tactic that they have been using on CC payments. That alone shaves about ten days off the shipping delay. This sudden change in availability and shipping ability only makes me more wary of PBGS and their competence. Right after telling everyone it would be two months, they start shipping. On the surface this looks like a promise kept (at last) but it comes at the expense of a promise broken (putting the penny rolls ahead of many other, less visible, in stock orders that are waiting to ship). I want to be optimistic about the future, but I will wait until I see a pattern of first-in, first-served, fast turnaround, with subscribers given the preference they deserve (there are many fewer available subscription items this year). I plan to test the subscription process soon. I have a standing subscription for the proof set and plan to order an additional set (to get more of the copper pennies) as soon as they come on sale. In the past it has taken up to three weeks after a product comes on sale for some of my subscription orders to be entered, followed by the usual shipping delays. The FAQs say that subscription orders are to receive the first available product on any new offering, but I doubt that has ever been the case. If that were true, things like the 2008 Silver Eagle with the 2007 reverse would have been delivered almost exclusively to subscribers. If the mint/PBGS truly wants to honor their promises, subscription orders should really be entered just before opening up the product for web/phone orders (with mail orders in there somewhere). This has certainly been a year to talk about the mint. I only wish that the main discussions had all been about the great products, and not so much about the difficulty in getting our hands on them.
I truly look forward to seeing/holding the new copper cents. When copper cents were last produced, mint products were of a quality that is nowhere near that of today (much like American cars of the same period). Even though the modern pennies are actually pure copper on their surface and the older ones are more correctly a form of bronze (copper-tin-zinc), there is something “better” about the coin that is pure of heart, one that doesn’t present a pretty face to hide its true color.
Clair
THE US MINT SUCKS…..THEY LET DOWN ALL THE COIN COLLECTORS EAGERLY AWAITING THE NEW LINCOLN CENTS
I too received a note from the mint today that my railsplitter cents had shipped. Big surprise seeing how I wasn’t expecting shipment until July. Just ordered the Guam quarters – let’s see how long they sit “in stock and reserved” until they ship.
I too received conformation that my shipment was sent out today ,I expected to receive it in July also.
Well clair! As it is writen, the squeeky wheels get the grease. It’s almost like the 800 pound gorilla that’s been riding in the caboose with some of the head, of the two mentioned entitys started looking for the exits. Unfortunatly, there is only way out of the caboose, past the gorilla. I guess it’s easier to get your act together quicker. Then to mess with an 800 pound gorilla. Because bringing this snafu into the public forums has almost ended in a revolt. Now, things seem to be almost! – - back to normal. We have a long way to go. With money flowing in the other direction, it would be the prudent move to get the act together as quick as possible. Revenue at the mint is bound to drop. With all the hoopala surrounding the mint snafu lately, this could only speed their revenue drop faster.
Can’t make that back, once you lose it. They still need to work on their priceing. If gouging isn’t allowed at the pumps. It shouldn’t be allowed at the mint either. Since our mint is a public entity. I would love to know how they justify the mark up on their new pennies.
coiny