With its dramatic shootout victory over Italy in July, Brazil became the first country to win the World Cup four times.
The U.S. was a winner, too, for the first time advancing beyond the initial round of the tournament. The U.S. also was generally praised for successfully hosting the soccer tournament.
Coin collectors, however, are less than thrilled by the U.S. Mint’s attempt to cash in on the Cup hoopla by marketing a series of commemorative coins.
“The U.S. Mint isn’t doing collectors or the patrons of the programs any justice,” said Bob Entlich, a numismatist who works at Stack’s Coin Co. in New York. Most of the coins issued are just “a flash in the pan at the moment of the event.”
Congress authorizes the Mint to issue coins to commemorate historic occasions, people, events or landmarks. All commemorative coins the Mint issues are legal tender. But they come with a slight catch: There’s no guarantee that any particular commemorative coins will retain their value when a buyer looks to sell.
The Mint may issue an almost unlimited amount of coins, saturating the market with more than it could ever support. That in effect eliminates active trading for the coins, dealers say.
“If a company marketed these precious metals the way the Mint does, there would be an investigation,” said Dr. Arnold Saslow, owner of the Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe in South Orange, N.J.
The Mint tries to arouse interest in its commemorative coins by describing them as “heirlooms and investments,” though most coins retain only a fraction of their initial value, he said.
Telling investors that World Cup coins will let them “Take Home the World’s Most Coveted Trophy,” the Mint is selling $5 gold coins, silver dollars and half-dollar copper coins.
A single $5 uncirculated gold coin retails for $200. Each coin is about 90 percent pure gold, containing .24 troy ounces of the metal. A proof $5 gold coin sells for $220. (Proof coins are struck at least twice when minted using specially prepared blanks and dies. This gives the coins a mirror-like finish.)
The Mint has set retail prices for a six-coin set of proof and uncirculated coins at $485. The lowest-priced uncirculated half-dollar sells for $9.50. At those prices, say collectors, demand is likely to underwhelm supplies-especially if the Mint proceeds to turn out its authorized limit of 11.75 million coins in the three denominations.
World Cup coin sales of about $1.4 million were registered through Aug. 26, according to Michael White, a spokesman for the U.S. Mint in Washington. But even rabid soccer fans and coin collectors are unlikely to buy a lot of the coins, according to experts.
One reason that soccer enthusiasm isn’t likely to spill over into the numismatic arena is that the Mint doesn’t have a strong track record in peddling commemorative issues. Few coins that the Mint issued have gained in value beyond the underlying value of the metals used in their manufacture.
The Mint has issued commemorative coins recognizing everyone from Columbus and George Washington to Dwight D. Eisenhower, the last president so honored. Other coins have taken note of the Statue of Liberty and the White House, as well as the Olympics.
The organizers of this year’s World Cup are banking on the success of the spectacle to generate interest in the coins.
But convincing serious coin collectors is another matter. For one thing, collectors complain the Mint doesn’t have a solid marketing record.
Once coins have been issued, “most of the general price trend is negative,” said Mark Borckardt, a senior numismatist at Bowers & Merena Galleries in Wolfeboro, N.H. “Prices drop 85 to 90 percent of the time.”
After a three-decade absence, the Mint began producing commemorative coins again in 1982. Collectors say the program is driven more by political considerations and profits than as a way of marking milestone events with collectible coins.
“We have people who bought these sets as an investment and can’t understand why they’re only getting half of what they paid for them when they go to resell them,” Saslow said.
While the Mint has taken the brunt of the blame, many dealers say the problem lies with Congress. Lawmakers are being “inundated” by lobbyists for commemorative coins, Entlich said.
In addition to the World Cup, the Mint plans to begin issuing coins commemorating the U.S. Capitol, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, U.S. prisoners of war, women in military service, Civil War battlefields and the 1996 Olympics.
“We do everything according to legislation,” said the U.S. Mint’s White. “Congress passes a law, we have to Mint the coins.”
So many commemorative sets have been issued that sales have declined in recent years.
“The rapidly increasing number of coin programs is testing the limits of both collectors’ willingness to buy and the Mint’s ability to produce and market these programs,” Philip Diehl, executive deputy director of the U.S. Mint, said at his confirmation hearings in May.
To be sure, some collectors still remain fans of the Mint as well as of the new soccer coins. “Many of these coins are beautiful works of art,” said Donn Pearlman, a Chicago collector and former member of the American Numismatic Association’s board of directors.
An advisory committee of numismatists and non-collectors has begun work on recommendations for Congress to improve the guidelines for future commemorative issues.
Even if the committee helps the Mint be more selective in its commemorative coins, Pearlman said, people should remember that the coins “are collectibles, not necessarily investments.”
