U.S. Mint to Destroy Remaining 1999-2001 Proof Sets Due to Deterioration of Quality

See spot! See spot run! See spot grow and multiply!

The United States Mint has announced that the entire backlog of 1999-2001 U.S. Proof sets will be destroyed because of "newly-discovered deterioration that affected a number of sets, apparently during storage."

According to a statement released from The United States Mint Pressroom "evidence of tarnishing and spotting has exceeded acceptable quality standards. As a consequence of this evaluation, sales of the sets have been discontinued. All remaining 1999-2001 Proof sets will be destroyed."

David Pickens, Associate Director for Sales and Marketing for the United States Mint, stated: "It is unfortunate that initial inventory inspections earlier this year failed to uncover the damage, and we regret any inconvenience this may have caused to our customers."

What about the sets that have already been released? "Orders received prior to June 13, 2002, will be processed. The United States Mint stands behind its products with a 30-day 'no questions asked' customer satisfaction policy," the statement said.

What about the millions of sets and tens of millions of coins that no longer qualify for the "customer satisfaction policy?" Does the destruction include both silver and clad Proof coins? How many sets are to be destroyed? What about the 2002 sets? Are all previously issued modern sets subject to damage now or in the future if left in the Mint holders? These were but a few of the questions that I was ready to pose when I contacted Customer Care Representative "Anthony" of the United States Mint. Anthony made it quite clear after my first question that no aspect of the deterioration and/or destruction of the Proof sets was open for discussion through his department.

Press inquiries to the Mint are handled through Michael White. I contacted Mr. White's office and talked to Mint spokesperson Matt Kilbourne, who fielded every question with courtesy and most of them with directness.

How many sets are being destroyed? "There were originally 100,000 sets of each year in our backlog. Approximately 15,000 of each year [1999, 2000 and 2001] were already sold when the problem was discovered. That leaves about 85,000 sets of each year for a total of a little over a quarter of a million sets to be destroyed."

What about the sets that are already out there in collector-land? "We are going to extend the return privilege on the sets already sold. We are very customer-service oriented."

Will the coins that are returned be replaced? "No. The customer will receive a refund of the purchase price plus the cost of postage both ways. There will no longer be any backlog of coins."

Is there a difference in the composition of the holders that might have led to this problem? "As far as I know the composition is the same as it has been since 1968 when the hard plastic case was introduced. We believe the problem stems from the storage facility itself."

Where were the sets stored? "The Philadelphia Mint."

Are the silver coins affected or is just the copper, nickel and clad issues? [Note: This question was asked twice without being directly answered] "Most of the damaged coins came from the 1999 sets. We thought it was in the best interest of our customers to destroy all of the sets."

Are the backlogged sets different in any way from the sets that were sold in the year of issue? "No, they're exactly the same."

Then aren't all of the previously issued modern sets vulnerable to the deterioration that was found on the backlogged sets? Obviously the Mint feels that this is potentially the case or they would've just destroyed the damaged coins, not all of them... right? "I'll have to get back to you on that one. We have had very few complaints from the public on these sets, though, so we believe the problem is mostly restricted to the backlogged sets."

Mr. Kilbourne stated that additional press releases would be forthcoming to try and answer other questions that are surrounding this unusual, controversial and somewhat bizarre turn of events.