Pick any aspect of your life and you would be challenged to find a cost in your budget that has been reduced and become less impactful.

Groceries are up, energy costs are up, with gas prices fluctuating nearly daily, the housing market is in uncharted territory where renters pay so much more than home buyers, but home buyers can’t make the switch because of high interest rates. Pick your favorite path and you’ll find an increase lurking or sitting fat in the middle.

Those statements are clearly pulled from the file of obvious information. It costs more to live, no matter how you live.

There’s never a good time to see costs increase, and they become even less welcome when they affect emotional sensibilities. When expenses rise for life’s requirements, like the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter, you feel powerless. When increases are seen in the optional activity of life, you feel like there’s more control on your end. It’s the cost of a want, not a need, and such a cost is usually among the first to find its way to the chopping block.

The U.S. Mint’s announcement of raising prices on silver products came at a time I find ironic. Many of you took part in the recent Coin World survey (thanks for that) and one of the questions it asked was, “Have you purchased product directly from the U.S. Mint in the last 12 months?” More than half of the respondents said they had, but judging from the letters, that number is likely to go down.

For full disclosure, I have not purchased directly from the U.S. Mint, though I have purchased from some of the world mints. My buying decision was simple — do I want it and can I afford it? They say if you want something bad enough, you’ll figure out a way to get it. It’s part of the success of marketing, presenting the products that appeal to customers in places where customers will see them, but you also understand the importance of price, especially when so many other factors are competing for a finite amount of available dollars.

The U.S. Mint raising prices is not new. Silver product prices were increased in 2023 (but some were actually reduced — the Uncirculated Morgan and Peace dollars dropped from $85 to $76, though with the recent increase, to $91, they now eclipse that 2021 price). Some prices that went up in 2023 may have gone up again, and the rise in the silver market stands right at the heart of it. Gold collectors have been experiencing the fluctuations as well, but that goes with the territory and is predictable on the pricing grid.

These latest price increases, for the most part, are significant, but certainly not new.

During his tenure as Managing Editor, William T. Gibbs wrote in his “Monday Morning Brief” for Oct. 12, 2020, that, while we understood about Mint costs rising, related to materials and production, there could be a better way to ease the impact on customers.

“I am sure that Mint officials consider the ramifications of raising (or not raising) prices for some its most popular collector products. But I wonder whether they do so in a vacuum. It is easy to tally dollars and cents, compare costs and revenue, before deciding on a price increase. But are they considering the human factor and what those increases will do to the market for the products?”

Considering those effects was a good idea then and is a good idea now. Let’s hope the idea is used the next time, because there will likely be a next time.

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