2010 Boy Scouts Uncirculated Silver Dollars on Waiting List Status

On Friday evening, the uncirculated version of the 2010 Boy Scouts of American Centennial Silver Dollar entered waiting list status. This means that the number of orders received by the US Mint has met the maximum limit, but orders can still be placed on a "first-come, first-serve" basis for any coins available due to order cancellation.

It is a little surprising to see one version of the coin already on waiting list status. At the last available US Mint sales report, total sales for the Boy Scouts coins had reached a combined 312,653 across the proof and uncirculated versions. This meant that there were still 37,347 coins available before the maximum authorized mintage of 350,000 would be met. In the last week of data, the US Mint had sold about 22,000 coins, suggesting at least two more weeks of sales remained.

I think there are two possible explanations for the waiting list status on the uncirculated version. First, one or more bulk bulk buyers could have ordered large quantities of the coins. The orders may have been placed early last week before the price increase took place. There is an order limit of 100 units per version per household, but even a single buyer could coordinate a large purchase with some help.

If the waiting list status was caused by a large influx of orders, then the proof version might be close to entering waiting list status too, provided that the orders were placed across both versions of the coin.

Alternately, the US Mint may have miscalculated the split in production between the different versions of the coin. The maximum authorized mintage of 350,000 coins covers both proof and uncirculated versions. The split in production is generally determined based upon demand. As a practical matter, I think the US Mint most likely takes a look at the proportion of orders before the last production run and then produces coins accordingly. If the proportion shifts after this point, then one version could sell out faster than the other.

Tomorrow when the latest US Mint sales report is available, we should have a better picture of whether the Boy Scouts Silver Dollars are close to the overall 350,000 maximum, or if the uncirculated version was under produced.

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