/biz/ - Business & Finance

>I’m on my break
U.S. Representative Alex Mooney (R-WV2) is calling out Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and United States Mint Director Ventris C. Gibson for the “long-running production slowdown” in the Silver American Eagle bullion coin program that has caused “shortages and dramatically higher market prices for this iconic silver coin as compared to its peers worldwide.”

Rep. Mooney is demanding Yellen and Gibson provide answers to the following questions:

1. Does the Secretary believe the Silver American Eagle coin is being produced in “qualities and quantities that … are sufficient to meet public demand”?

2. Why is only a single supplier currently allowed to (or willing to) provide the U.S. Mint with silver blanks for its Silver Eagle program?

3. Given its statutory mandate to amply supply these coins to the public, why doesn’t the U.S. Mint have a policy to build a reserve of silver blanks during periods of slower demand in order to create a buffer for periods of higher demand?

4. Has the U.S. Mint examined the practices of other sovereign mints – such as Britain’s Royal Mint, Australia’s Perth Mint, the Austrian Mint, or the Royal Canadian Mint – to learn from their relative success in meeting high public demand for their own silver coins? If so, what were the resulting findings or recommendations?

5. What actions are currently being undertaken to address the Mint’s production problems (which reportedly extend beyond the Silver American Eagle coin program) and when will the U.S. Mint once again be able to fulfill its mandate to meet public demand?