For inflation constantly catches up with the metals that are used to mint coins.
And yet, somehow, they found time this week to debate things like whether or not we should mint coins to celebrate the Baseball Hall of Fame.
However, the price of gold and silver changed relatively quickly so that it became pointless to mint gold coins.
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The reason is that the Treasury has the right, by an obscure law, to mint platinum coins, but only platinum coins.
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U.S. Mint bullion coins were doing a brisk trade.
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Thus, the most important step to take is to recognize gold bullion (at the very least U.S. Mint bullion coins) as legal tender, and then to abolish all taxes relating to transactions with bullion, or related items such as banknotes and bank accounts based on bullion.
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People trying to profit via the bitcoin electronic currency will soon have to work harder to mint the digital coins.
The U.S. Mint American Eagle gold coins are officially legal tender.
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This will enable the Royal Mint to produce giant coins to commemorate the Olympics and other events, such as the Commonwealth Games, subject to permission from the Queen.
Within Europe, the mini-states of Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican have even been granted the right to mint their own euro coins, by virtue of their historical links and monetary agreements with France and Italy.
The Perth Mint also sells platinum bullion coins, but those are not drawing the buyers.
The Mint is now issuing 2012 coins, and whenever a new issue comes out, there tends to be a spurt in sales, he said.
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At about the same time, the Mint received reports from banks around the country that coins were being deposited that were still in their U.S. Mint boxes, he says.
Physical coin demand remains strong, with the U.S. Mint noting record sales for silver coins.
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So far, though, there is strong demand on the retail physical side as the U.S. Mint has recorded strong sales for coins.
The Mint has also increased production of silver coins, up 56% in the quarter.
Refined in Saskatchewan and then supplied to the US Mint for the production of the dollar coins .
As a result, the U.S. Mint had the largest demand for gold coins in 11 years in May.
The Royal Mint is set to produce 60 gold coins and 14, 000 silver coins for the 2012 Games.
Nor is anybody going to mint a million million-dollar platinum coins.
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The U.S. Mint also reported very strong sales for gold coins.
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The Perth Mint is starting to see some interest in fractional coins offerings, which Currie said might be a result of supplies running out elsewhere.
In the US, the United States Mint has doubled its production of American Eagle gold coins to 954, 000 ounces during the first nine months of the year.
It's just that the Mint doesn't have the resources to make it into coins due to outsourcing and budget cuts decades ago.
This week, the U.S. Mint suspended sales of its one-tenth ounce gold bullion coins, but said it has ample supply of other sizes.
On Wednesday after this piece was published, the Mint announced it was suspending sales of one ounce gold bullion coins due to heavy demand until approximately mid-December.
The U.S. Mint reported that it sold 6, 107, 000 ounces of silver coins last month.
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Meanwhile, the SNP MSP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Willie Coffey, is to ask the Scottish banks, the Royal Mail, the Royal Mint and the Bank of England to issue commemorative notes, stamps and coins in Burns' honour.
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The Mint's Oct. 6 announcement that it would not produce any gold "proof" coins this year is testament to its diminished capabilities.
As demand for precious metal in the futures indexes and in physical gold bullion coins increases as the dollar weakens, there's been a run on the Mint.
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