U.S. Mint Delays Releases, Lowers Per-Household Limit from 25 to 3
Posted on June 18, 2021
By Paul Vanguard, for BullionMax.com
The U.S. Mint went through quite the learning process with the launches of its 2021 Morgan and Peace silver dollars and the redesigned American Eagle gold and silver coins. Demand was expected to be high from the get-go, which is why the Mint lowered the household order limit for individual products from 25 to 10.
That wasn't enough to stave off the buying frenzy, as the launch of the first two Morgan dollars on May 24 was marked by website and line downtimes. Customers complained that they were unable to reach the Mint in any way and that all the preorders were already filled by the time they got through. As seen on CoinNews, the Mint revealed that this might have been partially caused by bot purchases that were clogging the Mint's systems and perhaps denying access to a wider range of buyers.
In response, the Mint has made significant revisions to its distribution of subsequent coins. Initially scheduled for June, pre-orders for the remaining three Morgan dollars and the Peace dollar have been moved to August. Customers will be able to pre-order the SF and D Morgan dollars between August 3 and August 17, while the Mint will accept orders for the Morgan Philly and Peace dollars between August 10 and August 24.
Likewise, the two American Eagle silver proof coin preorder dates have been moved to July 20 and August 16, while the preorder dates for the gold proof coins have been moved to July 29 and August 5. While all of the products in question have been moved up, one gold proof and one silver proof product will now be available for pre-order before any of the four Morgan and Peace dollars.
The Mint said that this is because the Morgan and Peace coins weren't going to be shipped before October either way, making this schedule optimal with the disruptions experienced so far and giving it enough room to adjust its operations. In line with this, the Mint has also reduced the maximum household availability for all of the listed products to 3 from the already-downsized 10.
The leap from 25 to 3 products for each household is quite a big one, and highlights just how much the Mint was caught off-guard by the inflow of buyers, as well as their sneaky methods of acquiring coins ahead of others. Curiously enough, the Mint's official statement also directly addressed the shortages in silver supply it has been experiencing, saying they are to blame for the less-than-ideal distribution of the sought-after commemorative coins.
Remember, kids, when your big product launch goes super well (so well that some people aren't happy), blame the BOTs.
Paul Vanguard is a lifelong precious metals enthusiast and a proud member of the BullionMax team.
