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United States Mint Site Crumbles Under Pressure – Again

United States Mint Logo - Dark

United States Mint Logo - Dark

It what has become the expected behavior, the United States Mint site crumbled yesterday under the intense pressure from the buying public. The onslaught of buyers was due to the release of the privy mark Morgan Dollars that went on pre-order yesterday at Noon Eastern. Within 10 minutes, all of the available coins for pre-order had been purchased which itself was not surprising. The Mint had a household limit of 10 coins which frankly too high for this highly sought after coin.

As soon as Noon Eastern struck, the Mint site began to buckle. Users reported a wide range of issues from the site being non-responsive to receiving timeout (404) errors. Others, myself included, were paused “at the door” with the Mint’s Content Delivery Network (CDN) spamming mechanisms kicking into play. By the time the dust cleared, many in the buying public were frustrated and angry, taking to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks to vent that frustration.

The Mint, for its part, did acknowledge the issues in a 3-part Tweet it published last night:

While the acknowledgement is good to see, the bottom line is that the Mint must do something to improve the situation. Many collectors I spoke to in private have expressed they simply do not try any more and will be looking to the secondary market to pick up not only the privy mark Morgan’s released yesterday, but other major releases in the future. They simply do not want the frustration of the Mint’s site.

With more Morgan Dollars set for release in a few weeks, as well as the new Peace Dollar and other high profile coins, the Mint has little time to try to improve the situation. It is my opinion that we will see these same frustrations repeat themselves in a fortnight.

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