Fun with the US Mint

[Nords]

Get this - the mint overnights them by air using UPS. "Free" shipping for mint customers. These suckers weigh 46 pounds for every $2500 box. Wonder what the shipping charge for the mint is for folks ordering tens of thousands every month?

I'll let you know when the plane claws its way out to Oahu...

 

[FUEGO]

I'll let you know when the plane claws its way out to Oahu...

Hmmm... they have free shipping to Oahu? Nice.

 

[Nords]

Hmmm... they have free shipping to Oahu? Nice.

That would be darn near unprecedented, too...

 

[FUEGO]

That would be darn near unprecedented, too...

Well, it is the federal government we are talking about.

 

[mef623]

Members of the Flyer Talk forum - home to road warriors, airline miles enthusiasts and hotel points mavens of all kinds - jumped all over this program. They have a thread with nearly 5000 posts. One of the posters has created an FAQ:

FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Buy Presidential Dollar Coins with CC @ Face Value, Free Shipping

Are you a FTer? I'm mikeef over there.

I got into the game late and only was able to order about $50k in coins before it got shut down recently.

I'm down to funding Citi accounts with credit cards as my only free source of money.

Mike

 

[TromboneAl]

And the mint loves the deal because the $1 coins cost something like 20 cents to make, so its really easy for them to eat the CC transaction fees and the shipping.

That sentence doesn't really make sense, does it? It's not like they are getting paid a dollar for something that cost them 20 cents to make. They are just trading a dollar for a dollar, and they have to eat the 20 cents and the CC fees and the shipping.

The only thing for them to love is getting people to use the shiny new coins.

 

[FUEGO]

The only thing for them to love is getting people to use the shiny new coins.

Success for this government program = a bunch of people using these new coins. Heck it may cost many many hundreds of millions of dollars, but at the end of the day, the mint can say they met their established performance objectives of getting these coins into circulation.

Kinda like declaring cash for clunkers a wild success because the govt gave away a billion bucks in a long weekend.

 

[jdw_fire]

Success for this government program = a bunch of people using these new coins. Heck it may cost many many hundreds of millions of dollars, but at the end of the day, the mint can say they met their established performance objectives of getting these coins into circulation.

Kinda like declaring cash for clunkers a wild success because the govt gave away a billion bucks in a long weekend.

i am sure that getting the american public to use dollar coins has an end goal of reducing the number of or eliminating dollar bills from circulation, which wear out alot faster than the coins will, thus big savings in printing costs. atleast i hope that is the treasury's motivation.

 

[samclem]

i am sure that getting the american public to use dollar coins has an end goal of reducing the number of or eliminating dollar bills from circulation, which wear out alot faster than the coins will, thus big savings in printing costs. atleast i hope that is the treasury's motivation.

I don't see how this program will do this. I imagine people who got the coins just turned them in to the banks. The banks don't want them (and weren't taking them, which is why this whole program started), so they will not be circulating them (customers don't want them). The coins are unpopular or the Mint wouldn't have to resort to stunts like this.

 

[jdw_fire]

I don't see how this program will do this. I imagine people who got the coins just turned them in to the banks. The banks don't want them (and weren't taking them, which is why this whole program started), so they will not be circulating them (customers don't want them). The coins are unpopular or the Mint wouldn't have to resort to stunts like this.

well just off the top of my head, what if after the mint gets some coins out there using this program, they stop printing (or even just cut back on printing) the paper $1 bills, but continue to destroy the worn out 1s at the same rate? this would in essance phase out the paper $1 bills.

but then maybe you are right and it wont work.

 

[Eladio]

I have to say this works great for earning credit card miles. Just keep your shipping reciepts for proof of where the cash came from, when you get audited for depositing $300,000 into your checking account each year.

Eladio

 

[Gearhead Jim]

and twonie.

Of course, the dollar bill and the penny cost us taxpayers money but a majority of the people want to keep them because they are more traditional than efficient.

Bills weigh a lot less than coins. Ten one-dollar bills vs ten one-dollar coins...

 

[Texas Proud]

Printing new $1 bills cost a lot more than stamping $1 coins... coins last a LONG time, bills do not...

At the end of the day, if the gvmt stops printing $1 bills, we will be using coins... in England, you have a 1 pound coin (where is that 'pound' symbol?), a 2 pound coin and a 5 pound bill... I do not know when they got rid of the lower ones, but it works out... but I did hate having so much weight in my pockets... they were heavy...

I can see us going that direction in my lifetime... and also getting rid of the penny...


Now, on the flip side... (and this is from the news, not experience)... Japan still has coins... the yen is like our dollar... so even though one yen is like 1 cent, they have coins that split it up... I wonder why (if this is really true)....