Presidential Silver Medals

Would be nice if they added them to the enrollments, that way if there is a rush on one or two of them, at least you would have a complete set...

Well, I placed my order this afternoon...

IMHO the Mint is price gouging on these medals

They're charging $33 more for the 1 1/2 inch Ag medal versus the 1 5/16 inch bronze medal. If you allow for half of the price increase being due to the Ag content, then the Mint is still saying it takes $16-17 more for cost neutral production of these medals. Somehow, I think there's a plan for a "profit" with these medals. Of course any profit is returned to the Treasury to reduce the national debt, but it sure seems like a hidden tax on collectors of these medals to me

Once it again, it makes me glad that I'm not a medal collector

Guess we'll have to disagree on this one commems

To me, the items you indicate are marginal costs that should only incrementally add to the price of the silver medal versus the price of the bronze medal, not drastically increase it. IMHO the bulk of the price difference should be due to the difference in metal content and it is not.

I firmly believe that the Mint prices its gold and silver products to produce a profit, even though authorizing legislation indicates that the items are to be priced at cost. It makes up for the loses they take on other items. Here's the chart for 2017 (other years are similar) from their last annual report that shows gold and silver items to be profitable for them



and how that profit compensates for loses in other areas.

I have the full set of bronze medals so I'm inclined to buy the silver.

Well, not according to the authorizing legislation. The revenue from the program is supposed to cover the costs of that program only. It's not supposed to be a slush fund to pay for other programs that can't cover their costs or to be a hidden tax on collectors.

I am unaware of any legislation that specifies the Mint must price its releases at cost.

Legislation for commemorative coins, for example, typically uses language that specifies the sale price of the coins must be "based upon the sum of" (1) The face value of the coin + (2) the surcharge specified by the enabling legislation + (3) the costs associated with "designing and issuing the coins."

The key phrase is "based upon" - the language sets a minimum selling price, not a maximum price. IMO, it would be an irresponsible business practice by the Mint to sell its products without any profit margin built in - the Mint is not a not-for-profit enterprise. The Mint's Annual Report discusses not only the seigniorage it generates on circulating coins, but also the "net margin" it achieves on its sales of bullion and numismatic products. "Net margin" equals "profit."

The authorizing legislation for coins also specifies that the coins can not "result in any net cost to the United States Government." If the Mint did not include a profit margin, an unexpected issue during production could result in a cost overrun and thus a net loss - this would mean the Mint would be distributing its products in a manner that is against Federal law.

All that said, the Presidential Silver Medals are being produced and sold under the authority of Title 31 U.S.C. § 5111(a)(2), which allows the Secretary of the Treasury to "prepare national medal dies and strike national and other medals if it does not interfere with regular minting operations." There is no new, standalone legislation specifically for these medals. The Treasury/Mint has the flexibility to price the medals at a level that covers their costs plus generates some profit. IMO, they have done so at a fair price.

Commems,

You are correct about the silver medals. They're aren't authorized by specific legislation.

I've found that typically when the Congress authorizes a coin, that language such as the following is included in the authorization (this paragraph is from Public Law 114-148 authorizing the BCA coins)


In other words, the sales price is to be at cost and not include a profit (other than seigniorage since the price includes the face value of the coin). This even applies to bullion coins. Here's the language from PL 99-61 ( ASE authorization)


and the Mint has determined that for ASEs the cost to be recouped is



To my knowledge, the legislation doesn't ever say "based upon". The laws are very specific that no profit should be involved. It is interesting though that the Mint rewords the specific legislation to include "based on" in their implementing policy.