I think that the mint coming out with the new state quarters is a neat idea. But it got me thinking. Everyone and their grandma are collecting these coins.
Question: Does the mint actually want you to collect coins/bills? I mean, it costs the mint money to make these things to introduce into the economy. Does the mint make money when it produces a coin that never makes it into circulation or does it lose money?
The mint spends the same amount of money making coins whether people spend them or save them. The cost is not affected by the use of the coins.
The only thing hoarding affects is (a) the availability of the coin for spending, and (b) the price of the coin to coin collectors.
Actually, hoarding potentially costs the mint MORE money, since it will then have to mint more money to keep cash flowing in the economy.
Stamps are different, though. The Post Office encourages stamp collecting, because every stamp that is purchased and never used for postage is “free money” to it.
-Melin
Siamese attack puppet – California
Still neglecting and overprotecting my children
Check out Uncle Cecil’s reply to a similar question at: http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000472.html
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Does anyone know if the US Mint’s has stated what will be for the “51st” quarter? I mean, once all 50 states have been issued? Will they go back to original design?
They’ll probably go back the pre-1999 design, just like they did after the bicentennial quarters.
The word is no. I am therefore going anyway.
What gets me is the cheapo collector’s set that advertised on TV.
For $19.95, you get a carboard map of the US with 50 quarter-sized holes for the coins as you find them. Also included (“absolutely free”) is a book of “fun facts” about each state.
The word is no. I am therefore going anyway.
The mint spend about 5 cents to make a quarter. So yes they expect and hope that you will hoard them. This will result in billions of dollars of profit for them.
But don’t take my word: http://www.usmint.gov/50States/faq.cfm
So the mint will:
a)break even on the new quarters due to hoarding
b)LOSE money on the new quarters due to hoarding
c)make “billions of dollars” on the new quarters due to hoarding
Clear as mud.
Basically:
When hoarders buy quarters directly from the mint at face value, the mint will make a tidy profit. A 500% profit over manufactuing cost, not bad. (I’m assuming the $.05 figure is correct, that mint site is a nightmare) But to make even one billion dollars this way, they’d have to sell five billion quarters. That’s a lot.
When hoarders cull quarters from the general circulation, it has no immediate effect on the bottom line. The Mint has exchanged these quarters, even value, for funds from the federal reserve.
Over time hoarding will make it necessary for the mint to produce more of the hoarded coin. In the case of a quarter, where face value is much higher than manufacturing cost, this means more profit, though government accounting is different on this matter than corporate. Do you really think that the Mint would go to all this trouble just to lose a few more dollars?
We really shoudn’t think of the Mint as a fat cat getting wealthy off its captive customers. What we have here is a government agency that funds itself and turns a profit. The collectors are helping to subsidize our access to free and abundant currency.
It costs the U.S. Mint exactly eighteen cents to make one of the new dollar coins. (not five cents) The Federal reserve buys them from the mint for $1.00.
So yes, the government makes eighty-two cents on the deal.
Then we’ll turn our tommy guns
on the screaming ravaged nuns
and the peoples voice will be the only sound.
-P. Sky