US Coins

Mint updates details on efforts of ‘bots,’ doubts widespread use

Despite more than one bot group claiming victory in successfully overcoming the U.S. Mint’s Nov. 14 ordering restrictions for the 2019-S Enhanced Reverse Proof American Eagle silver dollar online, Mint officials deny those assertions.

“The Mint does not believe automated ‘bots’ made a large number of purchases for the AE Silver Enhanced Reverse Proof coin,” according to a Nov. 26 Mint statement released by bureau spokesman Michael White.

“Third-party reporting identified less than 1.4 percent of page views on Nov. 14th as coming from known bots. The Mint identified (and stopped) a relatively low number of Household Order Limit violations [set at one coin per household]; large-scale use of automated ‘bots’ to buy this product would likely have resulted in a far greater number of such violations.”

Addressing concerns from Mint customers who were shut out from placing an order for one of the 30,000 coins available, the statement continued:

“The U.S. Mint follows standard industry practices for its web shopping cart. Items are not automatically made unavailable to others when they are placed in a customer’s cart. Instead, inventory is decremented once billing information is entered and verified. Normally, this is transparent to customers, but during an event like the American Eagle 2019 One Ounce Silver Enhanced Reverse Proof launch on November 14th, it can result in items that appear in a customer’s cart to be unavailable at checkout.” 

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