Monday Morning Brief for Dec. 30, 2019: Looking to 2020

The year of 2020 will see the United States Mint issue its first colorized coins, as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame commemorative coin program. How will the collector community react?

Original images courtesy of U.S. Mint.

As I write this, it is the day after Christmas — not quite 2020. It has been an eventful year, particularly for collectors of U.S. Mint products (we will recap 2019 in review next week).

United States Mint officials have disclosed that they plan to release various special products in 2020, though they have not been very forthcoming on what coins and sets are planned.

We do know that, for the first time ever, the U.S. Mint plans to issue colorized coins, as part of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Program. I suspect that many purists will recoil in horror, seeing the U.S. Mint as betraying traditional value for its own profit by joining the many world mints that routinely produce colorized coins and coins with other enhancements. On the other hand, however much traditionalists may hate the idea, a colorized U.S. coin might appeal to the thousands of collectors who are already eagerly collecting world coins with colorful designs.

We also know that the Mint will be issuing medals and gold coins with themes that were first raised in commemorative coin legislation that failed to become law — one program for the Mayflower anniversary and another marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Are the Basketball coins and these special “noncommemorative” coins part of your collecting purchase plans for 2020? 

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