The second Lincoln commemorative cent officially released at 10AM on May 14th at a ceremony at Lincoln State Park in Lincoln City, Indiana. Two thousand people were at the park, but less than ten percent actually attended the ceremony. Where were the other 1,800 people you ask? They were in line for the coin exchange. People arrived at the park entrance as early as 3:30AM. At 6AM when the park opened some passengers exited their cars and made a beeline for the coin exchange line. Were these enthusiastic collectors? Maybe a few, but from what I gathered from the June 1st Coin World articles the majority were dealers or paid representatives for dealers. Twenty thousand rolls of the “Formative Years” commemorative cent were on hand for exchange. Participants were limited to six rolls each. It was available to make multiple passes through the line as long as coins remained to be exchanged. All cents were exchanged. Park policy prohibited dealers from soliciting for purchase rolls from the attendees on park grounds. Therefore dealers arranged with private property owners for use of their land to solicit purchasing off grounds. Roadside signs directed speculators to the dealer locations. One dealer offered $5 per roll and another $10 per roll. So how do you prove your rolls came from the official coin exchange? By having them postmarked by the Lincoln City Post Office of course, conveniently located across the highway from the park. I would love to hear Mint Director Edmund Moy’s take on this!
Maybe we’ll see a few Lincolns at our June meeting. If we do they’ll probably be on the US Five Dollar bill as we set metal aside for one meeting and discuss paper money from around the world. Please join us if you can. I hope to see you there.
