U.S. Mint throws a curve in 2014

Harry Hooper

Harry Hooper

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In honor of the 75th anniversary of baseball's Hall of Fame:
 
 
The First Curved Coin from the United States Mint
 
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act (Public Law 112-152), signed into law on August 3, 2012, requires the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue up to:
 
  • 50,000 $5 gold coins
  • 400,000 $1 silver coins
  • 750,000 half-dollar clad coins
These coins are being issued in recognition and celebration of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2014.
 
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Coins are scheduled to go on sale in early 2014.
Surcharges for each coin sold are authorized to be paid to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, an independent not-for-profit educational institution, to help fund its operations. Surcharges per coin are:
 
  • $35 for each gold coin
  • $10 for each silver coin
  • $5 for each half-dollar coin
 
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At current gold prices, the gold coin is worth about $328 dollars if I did the math correctly.
 
terrisus

terrisus

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TheYaz67 said:
 
That's kind of harsh!  Would you have preferred a detailed visage of a snarling Ty Cobb?
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Yes.
 
Seriously, when reading the intro to the article, I was expecting coins of each individual Hall-of-Famer or something. Which would have been awesome.
And, yes, I would have been first in line for a Ty Cobb coin.
 
A generic glove and ball is pretty disappointing.
 
C

CHAOS

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terrisus said:
 
Yes.
 
Seriously, when reading the intro to the article, I was expecting coins of each individual Hall-of-Famer or something. Which would have been awesome.
And, yes, I would have been first in line for a Ty Cobb coin.
 
A generic glove and ball is pretty disappointing.
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Actually, this picture doesnt do the coin justice. I think that the design is to highlight the curvature of the coin. Going with any other type of design with a curved coin would have looked.....odd.
 
C

CHAOS

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bankshot1 said:
If a player would have been chosen to be on the coin, it wasn't going to be a racist. There are probably two real choices: Ruth or Robinson. 
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I know that we are all happy that we don't have to face him 19 times a year anymore, but Im not sure that I could get behind a Cano silver coin.
 
Reverend

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CHAOS said:
Actually, this picture doesnt do the coin justice. I think that the design is to highlight the curvature of the coin. Going with any other type of design with a curved coin would have looked.....odd.
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They could have made it Prince Fielder and changed the direction of curvature.
 
GRPhilipp

GRPhilipp

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terrisus said:
 
Yes.
 
Seriously, when reading the intro to the article, I was expecting coins of each individual Hall-of-Famer or something. Which would have been awesome.
And, yes, I would have been first in line for a Ty Cobb coin.
 
A generic glove and ball is pretty disappointing.
Click to expand...
 
Tough crowd!  Judging from the drag-to-rotate depiction on the page that was linked to in the OP, I think they're really cool.  Personally, I prefer to have our government celebrate the game itself rather than a small number of its players.  Putting players' images on stamps seems fine, but stamps are more commonplace and less significant than coins.  I'd set a pretty high bar for honoring an individual on offical U.S. currency, and I don't think anyone whose primary accomplishment is athletic could ever qualify.
 
I see here that the Mint issued a Jackie Robinson commemorative coin in 1997.  That seems to be the only example of honoring an individual athlete in this way, and I think we can all agree that Jackie's accomplishments and significance go well beyond athletics.
 
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CHAOS

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Bump, to let everyone know that the Gold, Silver and Clad versions of this coin are now available (onsale today starting at noon) at USMINT.GOV   There is currently a virtual waiting room, so it would seem that demand is high.
 
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CHAOS

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Dan to Theo to Ben said:
link is showing the $5 coin as $419/424, not $40, so the premium is higher than $35. Or, more likely, I'm confused.
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The surcharge is an additional cost, that they are donating to the hall of fame.
 
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CHAOS

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Dan to Theo to Ben said:
So it's an ~$380 coin (gold value), not a $5 coin (face value)?
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Yes, its a little over a  quarter ounce of Gold. The US Mint assigns artificially low face values on their silver and gold products. Because its a mint issue, they need to assign a face value, making it a coin, and not a round. The silver eagle for instance, has a face value of one dollar, but the silver content is more like twenty dollars. There is still a premium to the spot price of gold, to be sure, but the appeal to collectors needs to be taken in to account, as this is more of a modern numismatic piece.
 
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