While the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee happily unveiled the official 2002 Winter Olympic commemorative coins Monday afternoon, coin dealers across Salt Lake City were silently cursing the U.S. Mint, the maker of the coins.
The coin dealers are angry because the mint will probably not deliver the gold and silver coins to local retailers until late February, just before the Games end.
"It's a complete bamboozle," said Debby Larson of Monarch Coins, a Salt Lake coin dealer. "But this is par for the mint. That's what they do — they make us miss the opportunity."
The coins are hailed as the first U.S. Mint coins to commemorate a U.S. Winter Olympics. However, for local coin dealers the coins' "fire and ice" theme will likely better serve to commemorate their collective feelings toward U.S. Mint.
"It's as frustrating as can be," said Toni Gurney, co-owner of The Coin Trade Center in Orem. According to the invoice sent to her from the mint, her store won't receive the Olympic coins until Feb. 22. The Games end Feb. 24.
The frustration is compounded by the fact that public demand for the coins is high, for now. "There is a lot of interest in the coins," said Gaylen Rust, owner of Rust Rare Coin in Salt Lake City. "But it looks like the mint is going to screw it up."
Rust says the late delivery is particularly costly to coin dealers because unlike other Olympic memorabilia, Olympic coins tend not to appreciate considerably after the Games end. Instead, the coins are often overpriced to begin with, and once the initial excitement dies their worth actually sinks to a "true market value," Rust said.
"The mints are prepared to take advantage of the hype," Rust said.
Indeed, the coin collections, which range in price from $33 to $440, have been available via the U.S. Mint's Web site since Oct. 12.
Michael White, mint spokesman, says the mint's goal is to have all the orders delivered by Feb. 22. That would be two days before the Games' closing ceremonies.
He says the late delivery is more a symptom of late orders. "It surprises me they haven't ordered sooner," White said.
Some coin dealers, however, say that would have been impossible.
Robert Larson of Monarch Coins says his business placed its order on Oct. 13, the day after U.S. Mint made the coins available on its Web site.
The late delivery could also prove costly to SLOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee. The organizations receive an equal percentage of the overall coin sales. If all 480,000 coins sell, both organizations stand to make nearly $4 million, says Linda Luchetti, a spokeswoman for the joint marketing effort between SLOC and the U.S. Olympic Committee.
However, the groups' profits will shrink if the coins don't sell out.
The Olympic coins have been in the works since September 2000 when Congress passed the "2002 Winter Olympic Coin Bill." The coins are emblazoned with the emblem of the 2002 Winter Games, a second emblem titled "Rhythm of the Land," the Olympic rings and the Salt Lake skyline.
The maximum mintage is limited to 80,000 $5 gold coins and 400,000 silver dollars. It is the most limited mintage of U.S. Olympic coins in history.
E-mail: joliver@desnews.com