2013 Presidential Dollars

[Figleaf]

It's not just the mint. I had a US car company refuse to fill my order for some software because my French Visa credit card wasn't good enough for them. They are not at all doing well these days, while Apple, which twice gave me small repairs for free, rather than deal with a "foreign" card in the Netherlands, is doing fine. Provincialism doesn't pay in international trade.

Peter

[paisepagal]

Exactly the same here. For a couple of years I could order from the US mint just fine - with a credit card and billing address in Germany, and a shipping address in the US. Then, in early 2009 or so, the mint stopped accepting such orders. But they would not simply tell you so during the ordering process ...

I even called the US Mint's customer service, only to hear that such orders were no longer acceptable. (That was in August 2009.) So I wrote a letter (y'know, print on paper, signature, envelope, mailbox and all), asked about the reasons for their change of policy, and mentioned that "it would be very helpful if you clearly stated that at your website, instead of allowing customers to place an order, select a billing address in Germany and a shipping address in the US - only to cancel their orders a few days later."

Some time later I even got mail from them! Printed on paper, sent in an envelope and all. Unfortunately not a single part of that letter addressed the questions that I had. Oh well, that was it. These days I get my pieces ("directly" or via a fellow collector here) from the US.

Also, I limited my collection of US presidents to a few issues only, and focus on series that also offer a little more design diversity, so to say. The Native American dollars may be questionable in terms of the historical view they provide, but the designs are great. (Have a look at last year's issue for example.) The ATB Quarters I also find interesting ...

Christian

Yep same here, I got so fed up with those cancellation emails that I finally called them. The lady on the phone took my order, but the moment I gave an Indian address, she said oh oh , can't process it... So had my aunt in md do it for me ... But I have a very nice friend on Woc who helped me out last time round !

And yes, I like those Native American dollars very much too!

[chrisild]

They are not at all doing well these days, while Apple, which twice gave me small repairs for free, rather than deal with a "foreign" card in the Netherlands, is doing fine.

That was probably some communist attitude ... Apple, the North Korea of the consumer world, as a "Der Spiegel" article put it the other day.   Well, if a mint (or any other company) does not want to ship to XYZ, or cannot deal with shipping addresses that are different from billing addresses, I don't really have a problem with that. But why let people place orders first, only to cancel it via e-mail a little later?

Christian

[Figleaf]

Depends. I am neither a shareholder in G ... the US car manufacturer, nor a US taxpayer. If I were, it would have bothered me.

Peter

[kena]

So if you try to use a credit card with an Indian Billing address, the order will invariably get cancelled after a couple days (even if you put a US shipping address). Well, this has been my experience since 2010

I wonder if they changed this for the UK as well since the last time I did an order with a UK credit card and US address was in February of 2010 since then a friend of mine who buys from the US Mint will add items for me onto his orders.

Ken

[kena]

On a similar note, what other mints do:

For example, the Royal Mint in the UK put products on offer just for UK shipping addresses and in Canada they limit items to either just Canada or US and Canada.

Of course, I have no idea how Namibia decides to distribute coins.  I have purchased Namibian non for circulation clad coins (silver ones still elude me) that people in Namibia never heard of while my family there got me the circulating 10 dollars - 20 Years Bank of Namiba which was released in 2010 before they appeared on Ebay.

Ken