FORT SMITH -- Officials with the U.S. Marshals Museum, which will benefit from the sale of the Marshals Service 225th anniversary commemorative coins, report sales in the first two weeks have been better than expected.
"I'm amazed the demand was what it was," museum board chairman Jim Spears said of the turnout at a Feb. 7 community coin sale in downtown Fort Smith. "We thought we would do well, but this outstripped all our expectations."
So far, more than 184,000 of the 1.35 million coins authorized to be minted were sold nationwide between Jan. 29, when the coins hit the market, and Wednesday, when the U.S. Mint reported the latest sales tabulations.
A CoinNews.net article said sales have brought in more than $13.5 million.
Museum President and CEO Jim Dunn said about 400 people showed up at the Feb. 7 event to buy gold $5, silver dollar, and copper/nickel-clad half-dollar coins. Buyers lined up outside four hours before the doors opened at 6 p.m., he said.
The museum sold out of its supply of 10 gold coins just five minutes after that sale started, museum development director Alice Alt said. The museum sold 162 of its 290 silver dollars and 32 of its 210 copper/nickel clad coins.
Since then, Alt said, people dropping by the museum office at 14 N. Third St. have bought up all but seven silver coins. She said Friday she was putting in a request to the mint for more.
"We really have nothing," she said of the museum's coin inventory.
The museum didn't have figures Friday on the original allotment from the mint, other than the value totaled $90,000.
She said coins were also available for purchase at First National Bank of Fort Smith, Arvest Bank, Regions Bank and Bancorp South, and through the U.S. Mint.
The mint's website, usmint.gov, showed all six coins and a three-coin proof set on back order. Prices range from $461.45 for the proof set to $13.95 for an uncirculated clad half-dollar.
Mike White, a spokesman for the U.S. Mint, described the proof coins as fancier, struck twice rather than once and with a special coating.
The coins have polished-mirror finishes and frosted-cameo images. Uncirculated coins are free of imperfections that coins mixed with others in bags would have, he said.
He said interest in the proof sets has been high. About 12,000 of the 15,000 sets authorized to be minted have been sold.
He said it's difficult to compare sales of the coins with other recent U.S. Mint releases because the Marshals series consists of three coins, while others are single coins.
An online report Wednesday by CoinNews.net said sales of the Marshals coins are behind the pace of the National Baseball Hall of Fame 2014 silver dollar, but "they're about to blow past totals of the 2013 5-Star Generals coins."
An online report Feb. 4 from Coin Update said the Marshals coins sold out quickly on the first day of the Long Beach, Calif., Coin Expo held Jan. 29-31. The expo is the first major coin show of the year on the West Coast. The U.S. Mint issued the coins Jan. 29.
The coins will be marketed all year, White said, but the demand will dictate when and how many are produced at any particular time. The mint is authorized to produce 100,000 gold coins, 500,000 silver coins and 750,000 clad coins.
White said the gold coins were made at the mint in West Point, N.Y., the silver coins in Philadelphia, the clad-proof coins in San Francisco and the clad uncirculated coins in Denver.
"It's a wonderful process to go through," said U.S. Marshals Service historian David Turk, who watched some of the coins being minted. Turk said he and four other Marshals Service officials were on a committee that developed the ideas for the designs created by the mint's artists.
He said the gold coin is intended to be a memorial to marshals who died in the line of duty. The front of the coin has a marshals badge and the slogan "225 years of sacrifice."
The silver coin features a frontier theme, with a deputy marshal on one side holding a warrant that reads "Wanted in Ft. Smith."
Images on the clad coin symbolize the history of the Marshals Service. One has the image of an Old West lawman and his horse, and a modern-day female marshal.
The reverse side shows Lady Justice with images of the marshals story at her feet. The images include a whiskey jug symbolizing the Marshals Service role in the late-18th century Whiskey Rebellion, schoolbooks for the school desegregation struggle, and a railroad track for the part the service played in the Pullman railway strike in 1894.
The marshals museum, which is in the planning and fundraising stages, will reap a surcharge from the coin sales once the U.S. Mint has recouped the cost of producing the coins.
The surcharges will be $35 for each gold coin, $10 for each silver coin and $3 for each clad coin. According to the U.S. Mint, it will pay 50 percent of the surcharge to the museum six months after the start of the program, 25 percent more after nine months and the remaining amount when the program closes out.
Public Law 112-104, the U.S. Marshals Service 225th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act, was signed into law in 2012 and says the first $5 million of the surcharge will go to the museum "for the preservation, maintenance and display of artifacts and documents."
Dunn said he was being conservative in estimating a $4 million net for the museum, but Spears said he's confident coin sales will provide the entire $5 million.
The next three to six months will provide a clearer picture on what museum officials can expect in coin sales, Dunn said.
The $5 million surcharge money would be added to the $20 million raised in donations, pledges and land contributions for the museum. The total is about half of the $50 million Dunn said it will take to finish the museum.
But he said he's not disappointed with the fundraising because the money raised so far has been generated "in the worst economic condition in the last 80 years."
Dunn was vague on when he expected construction to begin on the museum. The latest estimate was construction would begin next year and take about 30 months to complete.
Dunn said the issue of the proposed museum's spire hanging over into a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers easement along the Arkansas River has been an obstacle and remains to be resolved.
Plans call for the museum building to be in the shape of a star, like the marshals badge. One arm of the star was to reach out over the river.
Despite the corps snag, work on the museum is moving forward.
Brent Johnson Designs of Boston is to unveil the museum exhibit designs in a presentation scheduled for noon March 13 at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith's Blue Lion building at 102 N. Second St.
The 50,000-square-foot museum on 16 acres of Arkansas riverfront property donated by the Robert Westphal family is to consist of three main galleries of exhibits highlighting pivotal times in the nation's history in which the Marshals Service played a role.
NW News on 02/15/2015