Q. David Bowers
Production
Initial ceremonial striking of the 1984-W Olympic gold coins took place at the West Point Bullion Depository on September 13, 1983. West Point had served as a minting facility for Lincoln cents since the coinage shortage of the mid-1960s and in more recent times had also produced half-ounce and one-ounce American Arts commemorative gold medallions for the Treasury Department. (See appendix describing these.) Now in 1984 the mintmark W was employed for the first time, becoming the eighth mintmark to be used on United States coinage. (The others: C = Charlotte 1838-1861: CC = Carson City 1870·1893: D = Dahlonega 1838-1861: D = Denver 1906 to date: O = New Orleans 1838-1909: P = Philadelphia 1792 to date, P mintmark was first used in 1942 on certain nickel five-cent pieces, and on other coinage since the 1980s; S = San Francisco 1854 to date. In 1988 the West Point facility became known as the West Point Mint.)
Mrs. Pope had been in consultation with me earlier concerning the artists' signatures on the obverse, and, after marketing plans were underway for the $10 coins, she telephoned to ask whether I had any ideas to broaden the sales appeal of the coins. I asked for some time to think about it and then contacted her with the idea that coins be struck at other mints besides West Point, suggesting that collectors might like to acquire other mintmark varieties. I did this after due deliberation, for I realized that decades earlier the deliberate creation of mintmark varieties was exploitative; and thoughts of the Oregon Trail, Cincinnati, and other issues ran through my mind. However, this consideration was balanced by the fact that in numismatics in 1984 the most recently dated legal tender U.S. gold coin was minted in 1933, and no other issues had been made since then. Assuming that the new 1984 $10 pieces were to be marketed for reasonable prices, I felt that collectors would welcome the chance to acquire new gold coins by mintmark varieties.
Mrs. Pope had been in consultation with me earlier concerning the artists' signatures on the obverse, and, after marketing plans were underway for the $10 coins, she telephoned to ask whether I had any ideas to broaden the sales appeal of the coins. I asked for some time to think about it and then contacted her with the idea that coins be struck at other mints besides West Point, suggesting that collectors might like to acquire other mintmark varieties. I did this after due deliberation, for I realized that decades earlier the deliberate creation of mintmark varieties was exploitative; and thoughts of the Oregon Trail, Cincinnati, and other issues ran through my mind. However, this consideration was balanced by the fact that in numismatics in 1984 the most recently dated legal tender U.S. gold coin was minted in 1933, and no other issues had been made since then. Assuming that the new 1984 $10 pieces were to be marketed for reasonable prices, I felt that collectors would welcome the chance to acquire new gold coins by mintmark varieties.
In a 1991 interview (February 11, 1991 interview with the author.) Mint Director Donna Pope did not remember my suggestion for additional branch mint coinage of $10 gold coins but noted: "I recall that the coins were not selling well and that our overseas distributor, Lazard Freres, was talking about creating different mintmarks. A presidential executive on loan from Procter and Gamble also thought it was a good idea. I was initially against it. As it turned out, we did it ... at three additional mints, and there was a large outcry of anger from the collecting community. People were so angry and wrote many letters to Chairman Annunzio complaining about commemoratives. He later said that not more than one facility of the United States Mint may be used to strike each quality [Uncirculated or Proof]. This has been written into the legislation for each piece since that time. It turned out that these ten-dollar pieces struck at other mints became quite scarce and valuable, and there were no complaints later from those who owned them.
"As mentioned, we can do Uncirculated coins at one mint and Proofs at another but cannot split it between mints per the legislation. Back in 1984 no one had the expertise to make the quality Proof gold coins except for West Point. They had started striking the gold. There is special expertise needed to produce quality coins in this metal. We did not want to have all of our eggs in one basket and have just one mint that could do gold coins properly, so we developed the capability of doing gold coins at another mint as well. Now for the American eagle gold bullion coins we do the one-ounce coins at West Point and the fractional coins at Philadelphia."
Thus the 1984-D $10 was created (the first gold coin to be minted at Denver since the 1931-D $20), as were the 1984-P $10 (the first gold coin to be minted at Philadelphia since the 1933 $10 and $20 and the first gold coin to bear a P mintmark), and the 1984-S $10 (the first San Francisco gold coin since the 1930-S $10 and $20).
As creation of these mintmarked varieties was an afterthought to the regular 1984-W $10 issue and as original promotional materials did not mention them, the 1984-P, 1984-D, and 1984-S were eventually minted in much smaller quantities than the 1984-W coins, thus producing some of the scarcest varieties among modern American coinage.
Blank planchets for the 1984 Olympic gold coins were supplied by the Johnson Matthey Company, refiners of precious metals. (The techniques developed for producing the Olympic gold $10 were presented in a paper delivered at the June 1984 meeting of the International Precious Metals Institute, according to the Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1984, p. 15.)
Not everyone was happy with the new $10 gold coins, for there was no question that, unlike commemorative half dollars and silver dollars, they were expensive. Particularly vocal was Ed Reiter, who commented. (In a retrospective article, "My Two Cents' Worth," in Coinage, October 1987, p.12.) "Gold coins are too rich for the average collector's blood. They're far too expensive for ordinary hobbyists to buy them routinely-and annually-like Proof sets or mint sets, particularly when completeness requires the purchase of both a Proof and a business strike and possibly even mintmark varieties. Consider the case of the 1984 Olympic $10 gold piece. Only one gold coin was issued as part of the U.S. government's Los Angeles Olympic coin program-but it came in five different versions: an Uncirculated piece from West Point, plus Proofs from Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, and West Point. The total cost of all five coins, if purchased separately, came to $1,747."