Faq
About the United States Mint
The mission of the U.S. Mint is to serve the American people by manufacturing and distributing circulating, precious metal and collectible coins and national medals, and providing security over assets entrusted to us.
Since our institution’s founding in 1792, the Mint has taken great pride in rendering the story of our nation in coins. To hold a coin or medal produced by the Mint is to connect to the founding principles of our nation and the makings of our economy.
The Mint is the nation’s sole manufacturer of legal tender coinage and is responsible for producing circulating coinage for the nation to conduct its trade and commerce.
The Mint also produces coin-related products, including proof, uncirculated, and commemorative coins; Congressional Gold Medals; and silver and gold bullion coins. The Mint’s programs are self-sustaining and operate at no cost to the taxpayer.
The United States Mint works on a cost-recovery basis. We cannot use any tax dollars to fund our numismatic operations. Our goal is to provide the best quality numismatic products while keeping prices as low as practicable.
Our prices must be self-sufficient and cover all of the associated costs of our numismatic portfolio, plus enough margin to cushion against volatility. To achieve self-sufficiency, we determine the estimated cost to produce and sell the product. That price is used as our baseline. To calculate margin, we ask ourselves questions like:
- Are the proposed prices of this product consistent with similar products we offer of this type?
- Will the customer perceive this as a good value?
- Are we reaching as many customers as we can should we sell at this price?
- If we do not sell all of a specific product, is there enough budgeted for proper disposition (e.g., recovery, melting, recycling)?
Not all United States Mint products come with a Certificate of Authenticity (COA). For example, proof sets contain COAs, but medals typically do not. In some instances, COA language is included in the product packaging.
To ensure that you have a genuine United States Mint Certificate of Authenticity (rather than a replica), look for these two things on your COA:
A signature of a senior official of the United States Mint.
An image of the official U.S. Treasury seal and/or the United States Mint seal.
If you have lost your COA, Contact Customer Service to see if a replacement is still available.
In cases where we have limited-mintage products (e.g., legislatively mandated or Mint established production or mintage limits), the United States Mint may impose order or household limits. Order limits help us ensure that we provide fair purchase opportunities to the broadest audience possible. As we monitor our products, limits may be implemented, adjusted, or removed at our discretion.
Back Order: When products are in “Back Order” status, this means that the product is available for sale, however there is no inventory in stock and a future ship date is displayed on our website. Products in this status can still be ordered online or through the Customer Contact Center.
Currently Unavailable: Currently Unavailable products have no remaining inventory in our warehouse and no additional production is scheduled. Additional inventory may be produced or become available. If so, customers who opt to receive an email or text message notice will receive any back-in-stock messages we send related to the product.
Sold Out: Products in “Sold Out” status are no longer in stock in our warehouses and are no longer available for sale. Products in this status will be removed from the website shortly after they have sold out.
If you have any questions – please reach out to our Customer Contact Center. Their contact information can be found on our customer service page.
Effective the morning of January 2, 2025, at 12:00 am ET, product prices for rolls, bags, and boxes of coins and ornaments will increase by 5% and all other clad products will increase by 15%. Prices for all clad subscription products released after January 2, 2025, will be impacted by this change.
The United States Mint works on a cost-recovery basis and our goal is to provide the best quality numismatic products while keeping prices as low as practicable. Unfortunately, due to rising material and labor costs, the United States Mint is raising prices on numismatic clad products.
PAYMENT
In cases where we have limited-mintage products (e.g., legislatively mandated or Mint established production or mintage limits), the United States Mint may impose order or household limits. Order limits help us ensure that we provide fair purchase opportunities to the broadest audience possible. As we monitor our products, limits may be implemented, adjusted, or removed at our discretion.
Since the United States Mint is a federal government operation, purchases are exempt from sales tax.
The United States Mint processes all orders on a first-in, first-served basis. Once an order confirmation number is generated, the order is processed in the sequence it was received. Please allow 1-2 days for processing. Inventory is immediately reserved and the order fulfillment process begins. This includes products with a backorder status once inventory becomes available. Orders placed before the official on-sale date/time are not valid and will be cancelled.
If an order has outstanding issues (such as credit card holds, household order limit violations, or address verification conflicts), the next orders in line can be fulfilled before the one with outstanding issues. While the issues for an order are being worked out, the status of an order may display “hold” during this time. Once the outstanding issues are resolved, the order is re-inserted next in line. Accordingly, such re-inserted orders will not be processed for shipment in the same sequence as their order numbers.
Each day, the order management system generates several “ship lists” which contain all of the orders in line that have been cleared for shipment. These orders can be broken into categories to gain efficiencies; however, within the categories, orders will be shipped in sequence.
Personnel at the fulfillment center package and prepare for shipping all orders on their designated ship list in the most efficient manner. After an order is completely packaged and prepared for shipment, it is then moved to the shipping team for carrier pick-up. If the product is moved to the carrier pick-up area, an e-mail ship confirmation will be sent to the customer with tracking information.
If, by the end of the day, all orders on the daily ship lists did not complete the fulfillment process, which is complete with the e-mail ship confirmation, those orders carry over to the next day. For example, if the daily ship list contained the next 3,000 orders in line, but the fulfillment center only completed to shipment 2,000 orders, the remaining 1,000 orders carry over to the next day.
SHopping.
The United States Mint offers its customers various shipping options.
- Orders are not valid until accepted by the United States Mint.
- The United States Mint reserves the right to limit quantities and may discontinue accepting orders at any time.
- The United States Mint reserves the right to accept or reject coin orders in any combination or option(s) it determines to be in its best interest.
- In the event a particular coin option is sold out, the United States Mint reserves the right to either process partial orders and make refunds, or return orders in their entirety.
- Registered and guest users may use Track Order to determine the status of your order and follow your shipment, provided the carrier supports this option.
- The United States Mint ships within the United States and the following United States territories: American Samoa, Guam, Marianas Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands.
- Regardless of shipping method selected, The United States Mint selects from a number of carriers to deliver your package.
- United States Mint packages are shipped without insurance. The customer assumes the risk of loss during transit. Issues arising from delivery need to be resolved with the shipping carrier.
- Shipping charges are subject to change without notice.
