Coins get $1 million for marshal museum

Fundraiser, mint praise 1st-day sales

Jim Dunn, president and CEO of the Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, displays one of the comparative coins that arrived Thursday during a news conference at the office in Fort Smith. Thousands of coins arrived in Fort Smith on Thursday to be made available to buy in Fort Smith or online. Money from the coin sales will be used to help build the $50 million museum.
Jim Dunn, president and CEO of the Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, displays one of the comparative coins that arrived Thursday during a news conference at the office in Fort Smith. Thousands of coins arrived in Fort Smith on Thursday to be made available to buy in Fort Smith or online. Money from the coin sales will be used to help build the $50 million museum.

The proposed U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith made $1 million on Thursday through the sale of commemorative coins, said Jim Dunn, president and chief executive officer of the museum.

The U.S. Mint began selling coins on Thursday commemorating the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Marshals Service.

The museum gets a cut of the sales, up to a maximum of $5 million.

Dunn said he had been telling people he thought the coins would bring in $4 million for the museum, but based on sales Thursday, he now believes there's a better chance the museum will get the full $5 million it can receive in surcharges on the coin sales.

Authorized by Public Law 112-104, the U.S. Mint may issue up to 100,000 $5 gold coins, 500,000 $1 silver coins and 750,000 copper-nickel clad half-dollar coins. The coins aren't intended for general circulation.

The museum will receive $35 for each gold coin purchased, $10 from each silver coin and $3 from each copper-nickel clad coin -- up to the maximum of $5 million, according to the law.

Current prices for the "proof" coins are $412.60 for the $5 gold coin, $46.95 for the silver dollar coin and $14.95 for the copper-nickel clad half-dollar coin. Prices are slightly less for standard "uncirculated" versions of the coins.

Proof coins are the finest quality of coin produced by the U.S. Mint, said Michael White, a spokesman for the Mint. The term "proof" refers to the coin's finish. Proof blanks are specially treated, hand-polished and cleaned to ensure high-quality strikes. The blanks are then fed into presses fitted with specially polished dies and struck at least twice, which gives the coin a frosted, sculpted foreground for a glamorous shine and mirror-like background, White said.

A set of all three proof coins costs $473.60. Dunn said prices for the gold coins could change weekly with the fluctuating price of gold.

White said sales on Thursday were strong, particularly for the three-coin set, which honors the Marshals Service.

On Thursday, 9,421 three-coin sets were sold, said White. That's out of a maximum 15,000 that can be issued.

White said many coin collectors buy on the first day coins are issued.

Other sales numbers for the Marshals coins on Thursday include: 2,698 gold proof coins, 2,323 gold uncirculated coins; 24,057 silver proof coins, 10,200 silver uncirculated coins; 14,212 clad proof coins and 7,649 clad uncirculated coins.

Dave Harper, editor of Numismatic News, said sales may be strong enough for the museum to hit its $5 million goal, but it's difficult to tell this early.

Harper said sales of the three-coin set were impressive, not because of sheer numbers, but because only 15,000 will be issued.

"If you set the number [issued] too high, collectors will turn their nose up at it and say, 'Oh that's too many,'" said Harper. "The mint is always walking a fine line between too few and too many."

White agreed.

"We try to make enough available for everybody and we try to make access to the coins equitable, a variety of products at different price points," he said.

The coins will be on sale throughout 2015.

For the time being, the coins can be purchased only through the U.S. Mint -- online at catalog.usmint.gov or by calling (800) USA-MINT -- (800) 872-6468.

On the website Friday, it was noted that the three-coin set is currently "out of stock" and the silver dollar proof coin was "back ordered."

But more are being minted, said White.

"When we first mint these, we don't mint them all at once," he said.

"Back ordered" coins can still be ordered, said White. Shoppers can click on a button online to be notified by email when "out of stock" coins are available again for purchase, he said.

On Feb. 7, $90,000 worth of the coins will be for sale at an event in Fort Smith. The free event is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith's Blue Lion building downtown. Dunn said he hopes to sell all of the commemorative coins allotted to the museum that night.

Dunn said more than $20 million has been pledged toward the $50 million museum. That number doesn't include surcharges from the coins. Money from the coin sales can be used for construction of the museum or for exhibits, Dunn said.

Construction has yet to begin on the 52,000-square-foot museum, which is scheduled to open in 2017.

If more than $5 million is raised through the coin sales, other groups also will benefit from the coins. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation and the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund each could receive $1 million from the coin sales.

Metro on 01/31/2015

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