I tried. I really tried!
I had logged in on three browsers on my computer.
I had logged in on the browser on my iPhone.
I had verified that my credit card was entered correctly in my account.
When I tried to purchase the 2021 Morgan Dollar with the CC privy mark, I was logged out, the system kept trying to verify my browser, their Cloudflare front end choked several times, and when I finally was able to order, I had to try the credit card process several times.
In short, business as usual for the United States Mint.
Bad gateway? When a website uses a content delivery network (CDN), such as Cloudflare, you receive the Bad Gateway (503) error when the CDN cannot refresh information from the server. In other words, the U.S. Mint’s servers were not able to keep up with the orders.
This was a hopeful sign!
I could not use my card on file. The system had problems processing. I have a password manager where I have my credit card entered and filled in the details. I entered the correct CVV TWICE! There should be no reason for the U.S. Mint to reject the proper CVV.
What? After eight minutes of trying to check out, at 12:18, I received a message that the system could not process my order. Why?
IT WAS SOLD OUT!
Open message to the U.S. Mint: Your incompetence is wearing on your customer’s nerves. It is time to contact the Treasury’s Office of the Inspector General, the House Financial Services Committee, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Development, and my representatives on the failure of a government agency to work in the public interest.
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Agree. Just another example of poor planning and limited (or no) resources to handle the order load. Would hope this was to be resolved this year. Flawed thinking on my part.
I am with you. I was able to place two orders — one for the CC privy and one for the O privy. So far only ONE is confirmed. I will let you know if the other goes through. Congress did not limit the mintage. Why did the MINT? I am sure they will be on eBay today for $360! or $750!
I managed to finally get ahold of someone on the phone after 158 telephone attempts in addition to the webpage “failed attempts” This is almost comical on a cynical level as after hearing the prerecorded please select option, you just get disconnected, or told “Your number was not completed as dialed” – Anyway long story short told they are sold out. So it is not just the webspace but the telephone method as well.
Just a note. They never were taking orders for these by phone. Online only. For better or worse.
Is this the only place to buy those coins?
Miles Standish is designing coins for a U.S. company. You can purchase direct and avoid the US Mint.
The U.S. Mint is the only place to buy them at $85 each. The aftermarket values are already being advertised as $300+
Scott, I managed to get a CC. But I am suffering from buyer’s remorse. I may be able to hook you up.
If you have buyer’s remorse, I will be very happy to soothe your nerves and pay you to take the coin off your hands!
I’ve decided to limit mine to “real” mint marks rather than privy marks.
I got in and got four of each by 12:03. I had the page loaded and ready to go by 10 ’til. I was surprised I only had 3 time-out errors. The four were because I was ordering for three others who were also trying to get in but couldn’t, they were getting more and more errors.
Having just gone through this 8 hours earlier with the Royal Mint (Britain), it should not be hard to do this! Their site went offline at 30 ’til, saying they were down for a new product launch. You stay on the page, and at the top of the hour, you were automatically refreshed into a queue. It told you how many people were in front of you. It updated that every ~30 seconds. It gave you a progress bar! When it was your turn, it asked you to confirm you still wanted to go (I did on one browser, rejected on another), and then you get into the site. It loaded fast and fine. The fact that I could see I started as queue #1140 meant I knew ahead of time I would not get the 1oz gold coin because the mintage was too small, but I had a decent shot at the 1/4oz gold, which I did. If I were queue >5000, I would have just left.
So … it’s not hard! The US Mint really has zero excuse other than utter incompetence.