Coins and Currency Weekly(c) is Published by Alan Cohen

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November 14, 1999

Issue #23

US Mint Changes their rules (again)

Something that is becoming a regular feature of this newsletter is reporting the Mint changing their rules again. First, the Mint limited sales of 1999 Proof Sets to two per household. Then, they upped the limit to five, and allowed people who previously ordered two sets to order five more, effectively making the limit seven sets for those people. Also, the Mint raised the number of sets they would produce from an earlier number. Now, the mint has removed any sort of limit at all, so anyone can order as many sets as they want to. Bottom line – never believe the mint, and you will do well. See the press release below.

PRESS RELEASES

U.S. MINT LIFTS HOUSEHOLD ORDER LIMITS ON PROOF, UNCIRCULATED, COIN & DIE and ’99 SBA PROOFS

- Household Limit of 2 Remains In Effect for Silver Proof Set –

- Delivery of Connecticut State Quarter Bags Delayed -

Washington, D.C. - Director Philip N. Diehl today announced that the U.S. Mint has lifted order limits on the 1999 9-Coin Proof Set and 5-Coin 50 State Quarters Proof Set, the 1999 Uncirculated Set, and the Coin & Die Set featuring the 50 State Quarters, as well as the order limits for the 1999 Susan B. Anthony Proof Coin, now featured in the Mint’s annual catalog.

"Since we launched sales of the numismatic sets featuring the 50 State Quarters, our intent has been to give everyone a fair chance to obtain one," said Diehl. "To this end, we responded to customers’ desire to buy additional sets by raising the limit from two to five per household for the Proof Set. Now, with the holidays approaching, the sales levels we’ve seen from the recently released catalog coupled with the extraordinary pace of sales on our website make it a logical time to open unlimited sales on these popular products."

Total sales of the 9-Coin Proof Set total 1,870,000, with sales of 5-Coin 50 State Quarters Proof Set totaling 903,000 sets, and sales of the 1999 Uncirculated Set totaling 917,000 sets. Sales of the 50 State Quarters Coin & Die Sets total 6,100 sets, with sales of the 1999 Susan B. Anthony Proof Coin totaling 201,000 coins, and sales of the 1999 SBA Uncirculated Set at 141,000.

The Mint earlier announced estimated total production of 2.5 million 9-Coin Proof Sets, one million 5-Coin State Quarters Proof Sets, 1.5 million Uncirculated Sets, and 800,000 Silver Proof Sets.

"I also want to alert customers to a delay in the shipment of the Connecticut State Quarter Bags," said Diehl. "The extraordinary demand we experienced on our website on October 18 exhausted

our supply of coin bags. In less than five hours, we sold more than 62,000 bags totaling some 7.3 million coins. We’ve begun fulfillment of orders, we’re securing additional bags, and we currently project delivery will be completed in approximately ten weeks."

Dutch To Mint Millennium Coin

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - Heads, it's 1999. Tails, it's 2000.

The Netherlands will mint a special millennium coin next week, Dutch media reported Wednesday. Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm will press the first of the new 10-guilder ($4.70) coins at the Royal Dutch Mint in Utrecht on Nov. 18.

Queen Beatrix's silhouette will be on both sides of the coin, which will read 1999 on one face and 2000 on the other. The coins will circulate until the introduction of the European single currency, the euro, early in 2002.

The Netherlands, a founding members of the European Union, is the first country in the region to mint a special millennium coin.

EU OKs Introduction of Euro-Cash

By PAUL AMES

Associated Press Writer

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- European Union finance ministers agreed Monday that national currencies of the 11 nations that use the euro will finally disappear by March 1, 2002, allowing for a speedier introduction of euro coins and bank notes.

The agreement is designed to minimize confusion for banks, businesses and consumers during a transition period after euro cash goes into use on Jan. 1, 2002. It shortens by four months the period when German marks, French francs and the rest will be used alongside the new currency.

``The benefits are clear. You'll have a reduced period of double circulation, less need for two kinds of change,'' said Pedro Solbes, the EU finance commissioner.

The ministers also agreed to ``front-load'' the introduction of coins and notes with distribution to financial institutions and businesses before the euro becomes legal tender on Jan. 1, 2002.

To familiarize groups such as the blind with the new currency, introductory packs of euro coins will be made available to the public on request in the final weeks of 2001.

Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Ireland and Luxembourg locked their exchange rates last New Year's Day to create the euro as a non-cash currency that is already widely used in financial exchanges. They agreed to wait three years before introducing euro cash.

The agreement was clouded by a deadlock over a package of measures designed to stop business and private citizens from dodging taxes by moving their money around the 15-nation EU.

Resistance to the tax deal by Britain and Luxembourg leaves the EU facing failure in its drive to wrap up two years of difficult negotiations when EU leaders meet Dec. 10-11 in Helsinki, Finland.

``We have a dramatic situation,'' German Finance Minister Hans Eichel said. ``If we fail, our credibility will be damaged.''

Finland's Sauli Niinisto, current chairman of the EU finance ministers, will call a special meeting Nov. 28 to try to break the tax deadlock.

Charity Coin Auction Raises $2.3M

NEW YORK (AP) - Vintage coins owned by San Diego Padres owner John Moores took in $2,355,925 Monday on the first day of a two-day auction benefiting a new institute for medical research.

The entire collection of more than 1,000 coins, spanning 150 years of United States coinage, was expected to sell for $5 million to $6 million, Sotheby's auction house said.

The top-selling lot was an 1891 set of four gold coins with face values from two and a half dollars to 20 dollars, which sold for $148,500. All prices include the auction house's commission of 10 percent.

Moores and his wife, Rebecca, gave the coin collection to the Scripps Research Institute and designated that the proceeds benefit the Institute for Childhood and Neglected Diseases, which the Scripps Institute has established on its La Jolla, Calif., campus.

Until Next Time,

Alan Cohen

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