Questions About Commemorative and Bullion Coins
Please tell us more about the process being used to create the Ultra-High Relief (UHR) Double Eagles next year. Producing the collectible, pure 24k gold UHR will be a great challenge, but I am confident that the U.S. Mint is up to the task. The United States Mint has 100 years of metallurgy and minting experience to draw on now, and we've figured out how to do this. (Ed: Since Mr. Moy's response actually included zero details about the process being used to create the UHR's, my guess is that this is a work-in-progress at the Mint, and he didn't want to go on record with any details yet. I have no doubt at all that the Mint can make world-class UHR's though, or Mr. Moy would never have undertaken this high-profile project to begin with.)Will the UHR Double Eagles have a stacking problem? Yes, to a certain extent, but this is a pure gold coin for collecting, not for circulation.
Where will the gold for the UHR's come from? The U.S. Mint has a "Buy America" operational policy when it comes to buying from vendors. However, it is a permissible practice for the vendors to acquire the gold from foreign sources, as long as those source countries have a treaty with the U.S. Mint. (Ed: Huh? I guess we let middlemen buy the foreign gold so they can mark it up before selling it to the Mint? But the Mint itself always "buys American!")
How many of the U.S. Mint's gold, silver, and platinum bullion coins leave the country? Very few of them do.
Are gold coins minted, counted, and bagged, in the same mass-produced fashion as circulating coins are? Gold coins are counted by machine, but they are produced much more slowly and carefully than circulating coins in order the ensure their high quality.
Will the new 2008 Louis Braille Commemorative Silver Dollar have a “bump” on it from the Braille, so that the Braille can be read? Yes, this is a specific design feature of the Braille coins.
Miscellaneous Questions Answered by Ed Moy
Does the U.S. Mint strike coins for any other countries, or is it considering doing so? The U.S. Mint is occasionally approached by other countries regarding minting their coins, but actually doing so would not make sense right now. The U.S. Mint produces a very high volume of coinage, and interrupting this work-flow to produce a small number of coins for another country isn't warranted. (Ed: The truth is that the Mint doesn't have time or capacity to do outside work when it must keep up with striking 7.5 billion pennies each year! Since these pennies account for nearly half the Mint's total annual output of almost 16 billion coins, eliminating the penny would free up a lot of capacity for other projects.)Congressman Jim Kolbe tried for years to pass legislation that would eliminate the penny. Now that he has retired, is there anybody else pushing this kind of legislation? There is currently no legislation pending aimed at eliminating the penny. Although some people complain about the penny, many people feel an affection for it. (Ed: See my article about the penny debate, which outlines the pros and cons of getting rid of the penny.)
How is demand for coins determined? Let's say Starbucks needs some coins for small change. They go to their local bank and place an order for the rolls of coins. Their bank, in turn, orders the coins its customers need from their central supply. Their central supply orders its needed coinage from the Federal Reserve Bank branch nearest to it. The Federal Reserve considers all of these banking orders to determine how many coins it will order from the U.S. Mint.
Is there any concern that the U.S. might become a cashless society? Even though electronic transactions are growing fast, the usage of cash remains about the same. The entity that is seeing less usage is checking, not coins.
Does the Presidential Dollar coin have a future? Absolutely! The world-wide trend is toward larger denomination coins. The Dollar coin is convenient and economical to produce. The challenge is showing society the benefits of using the Dollar coins and therefore making them ubiquitous.
Is there any problem with U.S. coins being counterfeited? Counterfeiting of coins is not a major problem in the U.S. because it takes a lot of work to stamp a piece of metal into a coin. The economics of counterfeiting would say it's better to concentrate on $100 bills!
How did you become a coin collector, Mr. Moy? When I was a youngster, my parents owned a Chinese restaurant. I used to see all kinds of unusual coins coming in over the counter when I helped out on the cash register. I was amazed by the art and beauty of the coins.
Why is the dime smaller than the nickel? Does the U.S. Mint ever plan to change the sizes of the coins? Only Congress, through legislation, can change the sizes of U.S. coins. The Mint doesn't have the authority to do so. (Ed: Of course, the dime is smaller than the nickel because the sizes of our coins are a hold-over from when they still contained silver. The amount of silver in the dime was in proper proportion to its value compared to the quarter and dollar, whereas the nickel was larger in size because it had no silver.)
What do you think of the Arizona State Quarter? Placing the Grand Canyon on the small surface of a quarter was difficult, but this is a beautiful quarter that will be popular.
Although this wasn't specifically in response to a question someone asked, at one point Director Moy talked about his recent trip to a Mint Directors' conference in Asia. He toured the Tokyo Mint and learned that they have the same number of employees that the U.S. Mint has, (about 2,000,) but the Tokyo Mint only produce one billion coins a year (compared to the U.S. Mint's 16 billion.) That makes the U.S. Mint 16 times as efficient as the Tokyo Mint!
