Ultra High Relief - Six to Nine Months for Shipping?

Following Tom's lead from this thread, I poked around the US Mint's website and uncovered the unreleased product page for the Ultra High Relief Double Eagle.

Key details:

Price posted as $1,189
Household Limit of One
Potentially Six to Nine Months to Complete Orders

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?...

Tags: ultrahighrelief, usmint

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by jraytinkey on January 20, 2009 at 7:15pm: Sounds as if they do not have enough blanks at the moment...I don't know what else it could be?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jim on January 20, 2009 at 8:22pm: What happens if you order the coin this Thursday but your coin isn't ready to ship until September and the price of gold goes up to $1600...? Is your priced based on when you purchase it or when they ship it?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kim Bognar on January 20, 2009 at 8:55pm: The price would almost certainly be when you ordered it.

An online dealer asked me to order a coin for them a small premium and I was tempted as I was planning to get a slabbed coin later. Given the above, it may be more prudent to keep my coin from the mint (should it arrive) and have it slabbed myself.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by GoOgLyMoOgLy on January 20, 2009 at 8:56pm: Jim said:
What happens if you order the coin this Thursday but your coin isn't ready to ship until September and the price of gold goes up to $1600...? Is your priced based on when you purchase it or when they ship it?

It's based on when you order, I believe. For example, I ordered a Prosperity Set @ $1078.88, BEFORE the price adjustment. However, as we all know, the price increased to $1125.00. Once my order ships, they'll charge my card for the amount at which I had ordered it for.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by John W on January 20, 2009 at 10:19pm: Also of note to those ordering:
"When placing your order, please consider your credit card’s expiration date, as charges will coincide with shipment. If your credit card has expired by the time of shipment, your order will be cancelled. To update your credit card information, you must call 1-800-USA-MINT and have your order number available."
This is VERY important. How totally annoyed (to use a nice word!) would you be if your order was cancelled because your credit card had expired while waiting for the coin to ship? Answer: VERY VERY ANNOYED.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by coinnetwork on January 20, 2009 at 10:44pm: One of the unintended consequences of a six to nine month shipping delay is that everyone who orders will effectively get a free six month option on the price of gold.

If the price of gold goes up, your price is locked in with no money down and no payment due until the coin ships. If the price goes down, cancel your order and reorder at the lower price.

Hopefully the US Mint has some kind of fixed, long term contract price for the gold blanks, or they assuming a lot of risk.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mqracing on January 21, 2009 at 3:22am: Z-man said:
Did you find out if there will be a mintage limit? If so, do you have the total?

Policy wise there is no preset limit on the mintage--- in practice there may be an effective practical limit if the mint cannot source a suficient number of blanks to stamp. It is a one year only offering in gold. If the blanks are available this is going to be a huge, huge run.

I still have not decided whether to make a purchasing commitment for this coin.

MSL; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by mqracing on January 21, 2009 at 3:27am: coinnetwork said:
....If the price of gold goes up, your price is locked in with no money down and no payment due until the coin ships. If the price goes down, cancel your order and reorder at the lower price.

response to the above:

one of the drawbacks to the above "strategy" is that if you really do want the coin and the price has dropped so that you cancel your earlier booking at the higher price--- your going to go back to the end of the line. And if this is a case that the mint is not going to be able to meet demand--- you might end up with no product at all.

but your point is well taken--- and applies across their product line--- if an order sits and the price goes down will the customer cancel their order???

I'm still not convinced that this is the best pricing arrangement--- time will tell how this pans out.

MSL; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Richard on January 21, 2009 at 10:02am: The Mint will change the rules as they go. They always have. Trust me if the price of gold increases above the price of the coin. The mint WILL NOT deliever the coins. They will just say they could not get enought planchets or just say nothing and cancel all of the orders. It is not the same as the posperity set because the price of gold is still below the price of the set and they are still making money on them. If gold goes to $1300 today. You would not recieve your set that you ordered for $1189.

Do not forget the MINT is in business to make money and they make the rules. They change them at will!

Good Luck!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jim on January 21, 2009 at 10:48am: I asked NGC Customer Service about the Early Release designation and the delayed shipping - they said the coin had to be in their hands by the cut-off, no exceptions. So those that get delayed shipping and are interested in the ER label are out of luck. I don't think the ER label is worth any premium, but if there are only a handful of coins that get the designation, I could see people paying one.

I tend to agree with Richard - I think if you have a UHR on backorder, waiting to ship, and the price of gold skyrockets, you're screwed. The mint will find a way to get it's money, even if that means canceling your order without explanation.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Steve on January 21, 2009 at 11:33am: Regarding the situation where you order a UHR for $1189 and then the price of gold drops $100. Perhaps in order to prevent people from canceling and re-ordering at a lower price, the Mint might impose the 1 order per household limit and tell you can not order again unless the limit is lifted.
I don't really know, but just a thought....anyone else have any comments about this??
Thanks, Steve; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by GoOgLyMoOgLy on January 21, 2009 at 12:17pm: Steve said:
Regarding the situation where you order a UHR for $1189 and then the price of gold drops $100. Perhaps in order to prevent people from canceling and re-ordering at a lower price, the Mint might impose the 1 order per household limit and tell you can not order again unless the limit is lifted.
I don't really know, but just a thought....anyone else have any comments about this??
Thanks, Steve

Well, if you do cancel, I would presume that one would get pushed down the proverbial queue. If this is true, it would be in our best interest to keep our order confirmed. Otherwise, one would never be high enough in the queue to have their order fulfilled. Just a thought...; ▶ Reply to This