Buy Presidential Dollar Coins with CC @ Face Value, Free Shipping
 

UPDATE JUL 22, 2011: Announcement from US Mint: The United States Mint has eliminated the credit and debit card purchase of $1 Coins through its Direct Ship Program effective July 22, 2011. Customers who wish to purchase $1 coins through the Direct Ship Program can still do so by wire transfer, check, or money order.


UPDATE OCT 2009: A FAQ has been sticked in this forum that may answer many questions you may have about buying Dollar Coins from the U.S. Mint. Please read it if you have any questions.

UPDATE AUG 11, 08: Multiple coins are available for order today:

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs...category=16238

Jun 12, 2008 post:

Buy Presidential $1 Coins with your rewards credit card from the US Mint at Face Value, and get free shipping.

Has this already been discussed?

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs...egory_rn=16238

When placing an order, the pull-down shipping option may list a standard shipping price of $4.95. When you continue to the next screen, you should see the shipping amount change to "Shipping and Handling $0.00" on the order summary/review screen before you submit your order.

Thanks, First Ive heard of it. I just placed an order and may place more. Rackin up the points on the CC.:D

You are limited to $500 of coins per president.

here's the press release:
http://usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cf...release&ID=911

And the release schedule:
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/...ction=schedule

i just ordered $500
it will be interesting when i walk into the bank to make a deposit with 2 boxes of coins :cool:

:( :td:

That's not the point of this. Why don't you circulate them?

Does anyone know if this posts to the credit card as a normal purchase or as a cash advance? I poked around the site, but did not find this information.

Thanks for this! I'm in for $500 :)

Innovative. :-)

Now, where's the best place to spend this many dollar coins? I really don't want to be THAT guy holding up the grocery line with 150 of these things...

I'm planning to use them for all of my cash purchases, which tend to be small $ transactions because I use my credit card everywhere else.

I like to use dollar coins for tips ^

Hmm, only 4,000 boxes to get lifetime Gold on AA... who'll be the next PresidentialCoinGuy? ;)

(I use cash so rarely that this would only be worthwhile for me if I just deposited them at the bank, which not only goes against the spirit of the program, but is also just a major pain in the butt... not to mention that the most I'd make out of it would be 1.5%, which isn't worth the hassle of schlepping coins to the bank.)

It just shows up as a normal purchase. I have bought several things off of thier site including the gold buffalo. If you do order something that is out of stock they won't bill your credit card until the item ships.

Unfortunately:

"Orders are limited to two boxes ($500) per President."

There will be four coins issued per annum starting in 2007:

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=schedule

Right now, there are only 8 Presidential $1 coins issued.

A president has to be no longer living to have the coin issued.

Since we are only up to president #43 (Yes, Grover Cleveland gets two coins!) and of the 43, 4 are still alive. So even if it was 2016 (the projected end of the program) already, there will only be 39 coins (x2 = 78 boxes) available for purchase.

(Though indeed, it is possible that one or more of the currently living four may not live to 2016, but this still means only 86 boxes available at most in 2016)

On this plan, that means either a lot of tips or expensive tips (since 8x$500 is a lot). Either way, if you're looking for a waiter, I'm just a PM away... :)

Thanks for the post.

That would be 2,000 boxes!

My bank is right next to my work, so it's well worth the trouble, especially since it applies to lifetime miles!

No, only six so far.

I believe it's a little more than that. IIRC, the president must have been dead for a period of time (two years?) before they'll release the coin.

If more than one dies before 2014, the coins will run into 2017. They don't list a release date for Reagan just because they don't know if he'll be the Q3 release (if Carter survives) or the Q4 release (if he doesn't).

Since I'm a bit of a collector, this is nice just because sometimes the convenient banks don't seem to have the coins.

Be careful. Some banks are now charging customers who deposit coins, especially large amounts.

Any reputable ones? If they're rolled, they shouldn't charge even for pennies.

Just bought $500 of Quincy....
now to look for other presidents.

Seems a bit of work for 500 SPG points,
but, hey, that will buy a nice buffet breakfast next time !

...And reminds me of days when you could charge US Bonds to the AMEX !

Thanks much to the OP.

Sure, but how are they limiting this? Per person, per household, per credit card? If per person, then you can order 2 boxes per member of your household... if per household, you can send one order to your work address, perhaps. But yes, it could be a bit difficult to get too many boxes.

Er... whoops! :eek: I guess I misplaced a factor of 10 somewhere. Sorry!

Even if the bank were right next door to me, I don't think it'd really be worth my hassle... 2 boxes @ $500 * 1.5% = $7.50. While certainly every penny counts for me, as a starving graduate student, there's a limit to my free time. :) Maybe if I could get 3% or 5% out of it, I'd think it's more worthwhile, but since the Mint doesn't fall under any of the "special categories" for any of my credit cards, 1.5% is the best return I'd get. (I'm not counting any float from depositing the $500 into an interest-bearing account for the month grace period before I'd have to pay the CC bill... even at 4% APY, that float is worth only 0.33% = $1.67.)

That said, for those of you who want to do it... have at it. :)

In fact, I'm quite surprised we haven't heard from Marathon Man yet... ;)

Very Interesting
 

I just placed my order. A painless way to get miles. Thanks!

If you value points at 8-10 CPM (J/F fares) and have a good card earning 1.5, then this is 15% ROI which is quite good :) too bad I live in Canada!

:-: Those were the days! :-:

I still have the 2 $5,000 savings bonds that I purchased back in 2002/2003, the DL miles I earned having long been spent on a memorable AF Concorde trip.

I didn't plan to hold the bonds this long, but with the crash of the Internet and housing bubbles, those savings bonds (worth only about $12-13K now) weren't such a bad addition to my portfolio after all. :cool:

True, but I don't see a limit on the number of orders.

In for 2 boxes.

Anyone seing any other $1 coins avail for other than John Quincy Adams?
Click here to view larger image

If you go back to the product page and add more of the same item, you don't get the error message.

A scheme to exchange real currency for equally real currency in order to earn fake currency. Brilliant! :)

It's two boxes total per President, not two boxes per order.

Hmmm, tempting and I'll do one order, but is there a chance of getting "done" for money laundering?

What would FinCEN do with this when giving money from yourself to yourself is not illegal? No problem likely unless the bank in which you deposit the money files a suspicious transaction report and/or they think your transaction is greater than $3000 or being broken up in amounts to avoid reporting requirements. Even then you can't be "done" if you have it documented what your source of funds was and where it was deposited. Federal prosecutors and courts wouldn't waste their time if they exercised even a wee bit of common sense especially when neither the source of funds is from illicit activity and when this is not being done for tax evasion or evasion of other reporting requirements.

A thousand miles for a thousand dollars per President? If you want to try for a million miles this way, I suspect that the bank might file some reports with say FinCEN and the IRS but it's not going to "do you in" ... but there may be some explaining to do.

Precisely. At this stage it appears only the JQ Adams coin is offered at face value. This program could end if the Mint sees that a high proportion of these are turned in at banks in their original wrappers.

The next ones will be out mid-August; there are four releases per year:
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=schedule

Please remember that we--the taxpayers--are paying for this. I see this as something that can be beneficial to us in getting a small number of extra miles each year or reaching some CC spending threshholds and at the same time helping the Mint with its mandate to increase circulation of the dollar coin.

If these coins don't actually end up circulating, the Mint will likely cancel this program, as they should.

OT completely
 

I have to ask... how often do people see $1 coins in the U.S? Will there ever be a day when the $1 note is phased out?

Rarely, though I really don't expect that will change unless they stop circulating the $1 bill, which gets talked about, but not acted upon.

Money laundering involves taking undocumented monies (usually cash or cash equivalents) and making them documented (e.g. a check allegedly for for payment of some seemingly legitimate sale or service).

In this case you are doing the opposite.

You can draw attention to yourself if you appear to have a pattern of using up lots of cash do to a suspicion that it is being used for illegal purposes but strictly speaking, this is not money laundering.

For AA earners - if you aren't Gold/Plat/ExPlat already then you will have to check your annual earning cap on your card.

People with CO and DL cards that offer EQM/MQM's could also use this to earn towards lifetime status.

The new VS Black Card would allow you to earn Silver Status (Annual) with 100 boxes purchased).

(Assuming they take Amex but since someone mentioned the Starwood card I assume they do).

Can anyone confirm that these charges were actually processed as a purchase rather than a cash advance?

Carter did it, and Reagan reversed it (Susan B Anthony $1)
Clinton did it, and Bush reversed it (Sacagawea $1)

This time is odd since the new $1 have come in under Bush.

Plus - there is a lot of pressure from the Federal Reserve to get rid of the $1 notes since they cost too much to produce, don't last very long, and allow too much cheap currency paper on the market that gets used to make counterfeit $20's etc.

I do use $1 coins and $2 notes on the odd times that I use cash (well, some of the time).

You're talking about a million coins. How many of these commemorative coins do they mint anyway?

The idea of annoying my bank for lucrative miles/points/cashback seems a little unappealing.

Andrew, these are your theories, right? Because they seem to have little relationship to reality or history. Neither Carter nor Clinton phased out or were about phase out the $1 bill, it should also be noted that previous to the Susan B coin there was the IKE coin.

They cost to much to produce is a relative term/idea. They cost next to nothing to produce, but their life is short. A coin effectively lasts forever,costs more to produce, but "saves" money over time (at least that is the idea). Regarding your ideas about the paper. This was maybe a valid concern 10-15 YEARS ago, however since that time all sorts of measures have been taken and bits added to different denominations to make such a thing impossible.