Washington, D.C. — March 23 — The United States Mint today announced that it is raising the order limits and extending the deadline for its program of direct shipment of Golden Dollars to small financial institutions. The program allows community banks, credit unions, and savings and loan associations to order Golden Dollars from the U.S. Mint and receive direct shipments from the Mint within five to ten business days. Order limits have been raised from 2,000 coins per institution to 6,000 coins and the program has been extended until April 15.
“The bank trade associations have done an excellent job of informing the industry about this program, and the U.S. Mint has gone the extra mile to get the word out,” said Mint Director Philip N. Diehl. “Some financial institutions have been very responsive to customer requests for the Golden Dollar. We are extending the direct shipment program, and increasing order limits to allow those institutions to obtain larger volumes to meet the strong public demand for the coin.”
The Mint also reported that the Federal Reserve had increased its April orders for Golden Dollars by more than 50 percent to 165 million coins. The Mint has fulfilled all February Federal Reserve orders and is on schedule to meet all Federal Reserve orders for the Golden Dollar for delivery in March and April. Through March 22, the Mint had produced 344 million Golden Dollars. By April 30 the Mint expects to have shipped at least 500 million Golden Dollars, equaling in 14 weeks the total demand for the Susan B. Anthony dollar in its first 14 years.
“Public acceptance of the Golden Dollar has been excellent since its first day in the market. Our challenge is to get it into the hands of the American people in sufficient quantities that we satisfy their collecting requirements and they begin to use it in commerce,” Diehl continued. “Our latest market research, from February, indicates that 70 percent of Americans are now familiar with the Golden Dollar, up 43 percent in just one month. Even more encouraging, 40 percent say they are likely to use the coin in everyday commerce. This is exceptional given the fact that the coin had been in the market for less than a month.”