Royal Canadian Mint Struggles To Make Money:

I feel the annual coin sets from the RCM are overpriced. One can get all the coins from rolls. Roll fresh coins look just as good as what you would get from a set.

The mint began selling $20 face value coins in 2012 (I think I have the year right) and announced it was to be customer acquisition program.

Initially it appears many people incorrectly assumed the coins could be spent anywhere (as CLT) but RCM clarified they indeed it was Non-Circulating Coin and then made informal arrangements with banks, who could chose to redeem them however it was never a legal requirement. Oddly it seems as if RCM was taken by surprise that anyone would ever want to cash the coins.

The reason they're not legal tender is because they're never recirculated. When a bank accepts one for redemption, they ship it directly to RCM for reimbursement. In essence it circulates only once before it's melted. Another reason its not CLT is because face value coin was only sold directly by RCM to customers, not distributed by the Finance Department as with standard circulated coin that RCM mints.

I hope that's helpful.

Our local Post Office doesn't even order coins from the Mint anymore. They have one NASCAR medal sitting there.

Now I can't throw away those stupid ads, for fear they'll become as treasured one day as my old Estes rocket model cat's, that I used to spend days drooling over and months saving up for, had I not thrown them all away. (insert cry for help here)

Other Mints are just as bad. When it comes to NCLT or any collectible, how can anything mass produced be worth much in the long run? When things are made in the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, they are no longer a rarity.

Take example the US Mint, they don't have the many diverse products like the RCM. They only have dead politicians historical related coins. They have none of the commercial related coins like Superman, Looney Tunes, or Star Trek. But the US Mint coins have huge mintages or unlimited mintage like this coin.

https://catalog.usmint.gov/native-a...oins#start=1

The RCM have low mintages compared to the US Mint. Mintages like 500, 1500, 2000, 4000, or 5000.

If lower mintage equals more value, and assuming all else remains same, then that's that. Understandably less is more for a lot of people. I'm on the fence about it as accessibility seems to cut both ways, just not simultaneously, and maybe it swings more than once?

Allowing commissioned coins are the start of the downfall, it allows a private business to over ride good common sense and beat a few good themed coins to oblivion. Low mintage is meaningless if you release 20 units a month, plus the RCM's incredible nonreaction on the counterfeit issue.

When 95% of your customers complain that you are flooding the marketplace with product, and you respond by increasing the amount of product you release, you are effectively destroying your consumer base. Everyone could see this coming years ago.

Hopefully they ditch the silver and gold commems for a few years. Canada 150 is a good note to go out on.