US Mint Online Catalog Last Opportunity Section

Today, the United States Mint added a new section to their online catalog. Listed as "Last Opportunity," the section displays products which will only be available for sale for a limited time before they are discontinued.

In 2008 the US Mint held a Last Chance Sale, and recently in May 2009 they held a Last Opportunity sale. These sales similarly featured products which would only remain available for a short time. This time the format of the section is different in that groups of products have different cut off dates.

Martin Van Buren's Liberty First Spouse Gold Coins will be available until December 3, 2009. Louis Braille Commemorative coin products will be available until December 11, 2009. The remaining 2007 Presidential Dollar bags and rolls and 2008 First Spouse Bronze Medals will be available until December 31, 2009. These products will be discontinued and removed from sale on the stated dates or earlier if the remaining inventory sells out. You can view the page on the US Mint's website here.

It will be interesting to see whether this becomes a permanent new section for the US Mint's website. In the previous instances, it was only used for a space of time before the discontinuation of products included in the sale.

This year, the US Mint has routinely ended sales of certain products to coincide with the release dates of newer ones. For example, the sales of Martin Van Buren's Liberty coins will end on the same date sales of the Margaret Taylor coin will begin. Similar scheduling has been used for this year's bags and rolls offerings. If the section is made permanent, it would be a useful addition to the online catalog by adding transparency about when certain products are scheduled to end.

Separately, the US Mint recently provided information on their ordering deadlines for Christmas and year end processing. The US Mint will guarantee delivery by December 25, 2009 for any in stock items for customer orders placed by December 7, 2009 for standard delivery and December 11, 2009 for express delivery.

Information about the Louis Braille Silver Dollars was also included in the message. Sales of all products containing the coin will end on December 11, 2009 at 5:00 PM ET. Under the authorizing legislation for the program, coins must be issued by December 31, 2009. The earlier cut off date presumably allows time for ordering processing and delivery to meet the requirements. As of the last weekly sales report, the Louis Braille Silver Dollar Commemorative Coin has sold a combined 202,655 coins across all product options. The maximum authorized mintage for the program is 400,000 coins.

Today on Coin Update News:
Final 2009 Lincoln Penny Launch Ceremony in Washington DC