Coinage legislation is being pursued in anticipation of the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles and to also recognize the Paralympics athletes, U.S. Mint Director David J. Ryder told Coin World Aug. 13.

Ryder said in an interview at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont, Illinois, that U.S. Mint officials will be consulting with representatives of the U.S. Olympic Committee to help draft the necessary legislation.

Ryder said such legislation would include a reasonable number of coin designs with suitable mintages without becoming a repeat of the 1995–1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympics Commemorative Coin Program (which initially authorized a combined 18 million various coins across three denominations, before the mintage ceilings were scaled back).

Mnuchin support, special programs

Ryder discussed a number of subjects during the interview, among them the expansion of the use of different finishes on the Mint’s numismatic products. Ryder said that for many of the Mint’s 2019 numismatic products — coins with different finishes struck at different Mints or coins offered in collaboration with other world mints — the ideas were pitched to Treasury Secretary Mnuchin. Ryder said Mnuchin fully supports the initiatives.

Ryder said the Mint has distributed as fairly and equitably as possible the 2 million examples of each of the five 2019-W quarter dollars struck at the West Point Mint.

Despite all efforts to put the coins in wide circulation, it still might be some time before some collectors see the coins in their area of the country.

When he traveled to the Pacific territories of the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam for quarter launch ceremonies, Ryder wanted to carry some of the West Point quarter dollars with him to put into circulation, but the Mint’s legal staff advised him that he could not legally do so.

Collectors expressed concern about the condition of the 2019 Native American $1 Coin and Currency sets, many of which had the $1 Federal Reserve note dislodged from its place in the packaging. The Mint’s director of sales and marketing, Matt Holben, said the problem was not the packaging itself, which was produced by an unidentified Canadian manufacturer, but was caused by the way the note’s enclosure was assembled. The sets were assembled manually at the Philadelphia Mint, Holben said. He said not enough hand pressure was exerted to ensure the adhesive made a tight seal. The problem was rectified by employing a hand roller.

The Mint had all of the sets in inventory at the PFS Web order fulfillment center inspected and all defective sets were pulled for destruction. Additional packaging was ordered for producing replacement sets and to fill first-time orders until the maximum authorization is reached.

Ryder also reviewed problems experienced with the Mint’s 2019-W Lincoln cents, used as premiums for three of this year’s annual sets. Many of the cents shipped as a premium were delivered with surface blemishes. Ryder said the blemishes were the result of problems with the master dies used to create working dies to strike the coins. The problem was corrected, the blemished areas in the dies were repolished and additional coins were struck for replacement of damaged coins and for future sales of the Proof sets.

During the convention, Ryder was helping to distribute free packs of Mint collector cards featuring historical facts on different coin and medal issues, with one card fashioned to be able to accommodate a quarter dollar of the collector’s choice.

Ryder was also handing out three different signed versions of his Mint business card. The cards contained either a Proof 2019-W Lincoln cent, Proof 2019-S Lincoln cent, or Proof 2019-S Roosevelt dime. Using a smart phone to scan the QR code on the back of the business card accesses the Mint’s product catalog.

Ryder and BEP Director Len Olijar were busy autographing Federal Reserve notes and certificates of authenticity for collector products. Ryder and Marie Lemay, president of the Royal Canadian Mint, were also signing the dual-language COAs in English and French that were included in the joint Pride of Two Nations Two-Coin set containing silver coins from both nations.

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