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U.S. Mint Director David Ryder on Silver Eagle design change, W-Mint Program, and more...
Aug 20, 2019
CoinWeek editor Charles Morgan caught up with U.S. Mint Director David Ryder at the American Numismatic Association's World's Fair of Money to discuss the wildly successful 2019-W mint coin program and how the Mint plans to continue to use "freemium" products in 2020 to grow its customer base. They also discussed changes that are coming to the American Eagle bullion coin program, including design changes and anti-counterfeiting measures that the Mint are planning to implement in the near future. Charles asks about the longterm future of coins and how he has never sensed any urgency coming from the Mint in regards of the shrinking purchasing power of our circulating coins.
It's a fascinating 8-minute conversation that covers quite a bit of ground and maybe breaks some news.
#USMint #coins #AmericanEagle
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[Music]
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okay hi everybody i'm queen week editor
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Charles Morgan I'm at the AMA World's
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Fair of money with very important figure
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in American Numismatic sustain writer
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the US Mint director first time the
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mints had a director in a while but this
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isn't your first time in the rodeo
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what's changed at the men since the last
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time you were the director the number
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one change has been our customer base
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we're now mick director number 34 in the
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mid 90s we had about 2.7 million active
0:40
customers and since that time the active
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customer base is falling below five
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minutes out one of my jobs to beef up
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our customer base and create new
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products and try to get some of those
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customers back as well as most important
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to be new young collectors involved in
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this hobby it's interesting we say that
1:00
because about 80% of the collectors who
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come to our site are under the age of 55
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in fact the 10-year age spread is pretty
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even it's like 20% 18 to 25 20 percent
1:13
25 to 35 and so on
1:15
what do you think contributed to the
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Mint's shifting demographic where it's
1:18
the Hobby at large seems like it does
1:21
have a viable younger - well I think
1:23
it's important to understand that young
1:25
kids started in an early age need to be
1:29
educated about point bullet right the
1:31
benefits to it and we are in our website
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really focusing on kids in the
1:37
collecting community through education
1:38
trying to create educational programs
1:41
the Democrats have shifted the upwards
1:45
for their older adults right which i
1:47
think is why our customer base is
1:49
stopped right there getting there
1:52
reading retiring
1:53
participate in the corn collecting hobby
1:57
any longer my job mitts job is to create
2:00
new products that collector base is too
2:04
old the young thing collected through
2:08
pricing points pretty interesting
2:10
programs today we're going to be
2:13
introducing that collector card set
2:15
right the coop Rises I think of seven
2:17
cards of our mint mining miners' right
2:20
and it's it's baked for young kids and
2:23
it's a giveaway it's great we're not
2:25
charging right
2:26
why speaking of free products or premium
2:28
premium products if you will one of the
2:31
things like when you go back to like the
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heyday of the Hobby in the 1960s a lot
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of the dealers today grew up around this
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period of times they remember pulling
2:39
out rare valuable points from change and
2:41
something that your mint did and 20:19
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was that they not only put some w-mint
2:47
proof products out in the numismatic
2:50
area we also integrated a very limited
2:53
number of w-mint circulating coins and
2:56
just and to change so Americans can find
2:58
these more valuable points in their
3:01
pocket change I think that that was a
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tremendous success like it it created
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that opportunity that hasn't really
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existed since silver was pulled out of
3:09
circulation for you to find something
3:11
special and your change
3:12
is there any chance of the mint would
3:13
consider doing this or was the logistics
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that actually striking that limited
3:18
number of points that has been seeding
3:20
them was it like too costly for the
3:22
mythic area no no we're very much behind
3:24
that we started the Koch W quarter
3:27
program right but the last point that
3:29
will really manufacturer very minimal
3:32
volume orders that get infiltrated or
3:35
combined with our shipments we were
3:38
Philadelphia in West Point thrown off
3:40
from the Denver mints right and they get
3:43
distributed throughout
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Cass cycle system with the Federal
3:48
Reserve writes been very populous we
3:50
also introduced the W penny right that's
3:54
very popular that is a proof penny that
3:56
goes in a vari coin sets units is a
4:01
program that we have been getting a lot
4:03
of high marks for right so we're gonna
4:05
we're going to continue so coin
4:07
collectors can expect this program to go
4:10
on possibly with other denominations
4:13
stay tuned right definitely some new
4:15
things coming so is that is there a plan
4:17
to consider to continue the circulating
4:19
W mint program into 2020 and beyond or
4:22
absolutely that's maybe with different
4:25
denominated different denomination
4:27
that's very cool one of the challenges
4:29
I've been to a couple to you a world
4:31
mint directors and offices and one of
4:34
the challenges I think that faces the
4:35
different world menses circulating point
4:38
producing enterprises is the devaluation
4:43
of low denomination coinage you know
4:45
that Europe is dealing with their own
4:47
situation where they're dropping some
4:49
copper coinage we have a similar issue
4:52
although I don't think there's a
4:53
political will to change our circulation
4:55
denominations but the Wednesday point in
4:58
the fighting point really had very
4:59
limited purchasing power one Singh point
5:01
usually doesn't even get back into the
5:03
feedback loop it's usually people poured
5:06
them I've asked ed Moy I've asked Phil
5:09
Beal and other mint directors like if
5:11
the men has ever taken it when they were
5:13
in and the position if they had ever
5:16
like investigated introducing higher
5:18
denomination pointage testing it like
5:22
researching it going to the Treasury and
5:24
advocating for it I've never gotten a
5:26
satisfactory answer where they've said
5:28
yes we've done that is that something
5:30
that concerns you that the future
5:32
viability of coins and has a expiration
5:36
date if higher denomination coins aren't
5:38
introduced the current mint policy is to
5:41
stay the status quo penny in the nickel
5:43
and other denominations
5:45
there's nothing underway right now that
5:48
we're gonna do something higher than
5:50
that $1.00 point the big problem the
5:53
missus had
5:55
is the co circulation of a $1 coin and a
5:58
$1 note at the same time right that's a
6:00
policy that's not going to change I
6:02
don't think it's a change anytime soon
6:03
it's not the direction the mints going
6:06
towards that said at some point down the
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low probably after I'm gone it probably
6:12
is something that the government might
6:15
want to take a look at really from the
6:17
cost point of view and currently right
6:20
now then that's not considered right
6:22
well one of the problems that I've
6:23
noticed with the one dollar point just
6:25
in general is that one dollar doesn't
6:27
have enough buying power for it to be
6:28
viable so you consider maybe you're
6:31
gonna buy a watch at a fast-food
6:33
restaurant it's 11 or $12 you're not
6:36
gonna have a roll points to pay for it
6:38
so this to me it just seems like we've
6:39
gone beyond the fact that the the dollar
6:41
today is may be worth what the quarter
6:43
was in the 1980s this is probably true
6:46
however unless an if the government
6:51
decides or quite frankly it's Congress
6:53
the rest to the side knows is and it's
6:55
not mint policy if the United States
6:57
Congress that makes the legislation
6:59
right in order to do what you're asking
7:02
you do Congress has to make that has to
7:04
make that decision and change it on
7:06
their own I don't think that's gonna
7:09
happen anytime soon but is something
7:13
that someone wants to take up and people
7:15
have said as of right now all I can tell
7:20
you is it's not the new policy we're not
7:22
going to show sure the American bullion
7:25
point program is one of the leading
7:26
William complaint programs in the world
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and in recent years we've seen you know
7:31
influx of Chinese counterfeits of
7:34
popular bullion points not just
7:37
Americans Canadians every other boy in
7:39
claiming managable is the mint
7:41
considered like beefing up the security
7:44
of those bullion coins so that like
7:48
collectors can have a little bit more
7:50
peace of mind when they're buying them
7:51
on the secondary market absolutely we've
7:54
got a whole new staff to fill it up and
7:57
MIT who are specifically looking at this
7:59
area concerns me the bullion program is
8:03
a Cadillac
8:04
collector point Emporium every world we
8:07
are looking at possibly doing some
8:10
things to change what goes into the
8:13
bullion for me to add probably three
8:16
levels of security a overt feature for
8:19
the general public to say to special and
8:22
I loop or something like that right a
8:24
level two feature that's meant for
8:26
people like and the true here in the
8:28
tray and then a covert features for
8:31
something for a forensic feature for
8:34
mint personnel and the Secret Service to
8:36
be able to detect so yes we are looking
8:39
at that and my guess is you can expect
8:41
something in the future would that would
8:44
that entail at this visible design
8:46
change to the yes right yes very well
8:50
David thank you very much
8:51
congratulations on the successful return
8:54
to the mint and we look forward to
8:55
seeing what its gonna have for us in the
8:57
new year
8:57
thank you very much thank you shoot