Grand Canyon On Thursday 6/29.. Save Your Pennies.

I've not had to do anything like that for any of the 4 pucks that I've gotten. They've all just appeared at work the day after they shipped from the mint.

Interestingly, my 2011 ASE shipped before the Grand Canyon puck (which I received yesterday) and still is in transit. So yes, they are taking some extra care on the ATB pucks. I said this before but perhaps they feel that they can kick in overnight shipping on the huge haul they're (theoretically) making given the current price of silver.

Yosemite is not sold out, the wait list notice has been removed as well as the ordering limits. There's still 1,566 Yosemite pucks left and 6,166 left of the Grand Canyon. The pace for these two is much slower than for Hot Springs and Yellowstone. Outside a hardcore group of ATB, demand seems to be slowing, probably the every third week pace exhausted some wallets. Doesn't bode well for the fifth puck, Mount Hood, and it would be interesting to see if the mintages are over 25,000 for each of the 2011 pucks. Wouldn't be surprised with a 20,000 or 25,000 cap.

My fear is that the ATB series is starting to trend more and more like the $10 First Spouse gold coins, maximum 40,000 per design for the first year in 2007, then only 20,000 in 2008, and much fewer than that in 2009 & 2010, except for Mary Todd Lincoln. 2010 could be a high-water mark for the uncirculated pucks. Unless Congress alters the legislation, the Treasury department is committed to coining these pucks. Some of these odd and out of the way parks might have minuscule mintages and might be excellent buys at the time of release.

As a side note, 2011 might be the high-water mark for the BULLION pucks at least for the foreseeable future. 637,500 pucks is more than 3 million oz of silver! Even though that is a fraction of the annual ASE output, the ASE is well known and has 25 years of sales behind it, whereas the ATB pucks needs to find its niche beyond its status as a novelty product line. This coin series has been endlessly fascinating, even more so than the 50 State Quarters series before it.

CK, I think more people than just your coin dealer sees the ATBs as a gimmick/curiosity. They are waiting to see if these coins are writhe investing in, particularly in bulk. I think this series will gain traction and more adherents as time goes by, but it will probably take until the middle of series before it's regarded seriously as a PM or collecting purchase. Definitely keep an eye on the upcoming coins and the mintages...

Also, silver is up $2/oz as of this post. The melt value of our pucks is $10 closer to what we paid for them!



Anyone have insight as to why silver jumped so much?

K

Got my Grand Canyon puck today and I am extremely dissapointed! The plastic case was half open allowing the coin to bounce around in shipping. There a two huge scratches (1 at the base of Washington's neck and the other below the ear). Does anyone have experience with sending coins back to the mint for this reason? Will they replace it for me? Any info would be appreciated!

I have returned coins both for credit and replacement and it's a fairly easy task. Just use the return label on your receipt and indicate a reason but it HAS to be sent within 5 days of receipt.

I would send it back requesting a replacement. If it's not available then they will credit your purchase back to you (actually they will credit it back either way and then recharge you if they send it)

Calling them will have no purpose since they will just tell you to return it.

Here's a report about the Grand Canyon uncirculated lacking the vapor blasted finish, courtesy of Coin World:

http://www.coinworld.com/articles/g...rike-finish/

Better check your coins carefully before returning. This a definite error and will command a substantial premium.