Great American Mint

Great American Mint

The number of private mints around the globe has exploded in recent years. Some of the largest and fastest growth in this sector has occurred in the United States, where a number of private mints now operate on a massive scale. These mints fill an important void in the precious metal industry and even act to support the activities of sovereign mints. The Great American Mint is one of the newest private mints in the United States, and has quickly established itself as one of the leading brands in the private sector in this country.

About the Great American Mint

Known officially as the Great American Mint & Refinery Inc., or just GRAMMCO, the Great American Mint is based in Anaheim, California where it was founded in 2011. The mint first opened its doors for operation in 2013, running a full-service business that includes state-of-the-art refining, custom bullion minting, wholesale and retail bullion buying and selling, and an onsite analytic laboratory that uses advanced techniques to grade the purity of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.

The mint started with just silver as its primary precious metal that it worked on in house. While that continues today as the mint works toward certification as a gold refinery and mint facility, the Great American Mint has already expanded its operations to include production of copper rounds.

Great American Mint’s wholesale and retail division acts as a broker in the market for all precious metals. Customers and other dealers can buy and sell all types of precious metals from Great American Mint, including investment-grade bullion products, such as the American Eagle, Canadian Maple Leaf, and British Sovereigns, as well as bars from international brands like Johnson Matthey and Credit Suisse.

Back in-house, Great American Mint is the nation’s largest direct source purchaser of scrap precious metals materials. The chemists in the company’s analytics lab can detect precious metal contents down to the parts per millions, and its refinery is capable of producing silver rounds, silver bars, and copper bullion products thanks to its scrap services.

One of the lesser known, but equally important, roles for Great American Mint is the production of investment-grade bullion blanks. The Great American Mint produces high quality silver blanks that are purchased and used by sovereign mints, such as the United States Mint and Royal Canadian Mint in the production of wildly popular bullion coin programs, namely the American Silver Eagle and Canadian Silver Maple Leaf (respectively).

Role of Private Mints

Individual investors are always looking to protect their wealth from volatile stock markets by investing in gold, silver, and other precious metal products. These precious metals were the first forms of currency used by human civilization, and thousands of years later, people are still turning to these reliable sources as a viable means of protecting wealth.

While sovereign mints get more attention for investment-grade bullion products and commemorative coins, private mints have a role to play in the industry. Although extremely beautiful and more valuable for use in Precious Metal IRAs, sovereign coins block many investors from getting into the precious metal market because the cost is much higher. A greater premium over the spot price of the metal is charged for these products.

Private mints selling their own rounds and bars of .999 pure silver or .9999 pure gold are able to charge lower premiums over spot prices, making it easier and more affordable for more investors to enter the precious metals market.

On top of that, private mints often act as a dealer outlet to help disperse the large annual production run of popular coin programs, such as the American Silver Eagle, Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, and other coins.

Limitations of Private Mints

For all the positives that come from private mints, there is one major limitation all of them face. Private mints are not permitted to strike circulation currency for any nation. A private mint claiming to sell or actually producing currency can find itself in a lot of legal trouble. As such, they are limited to the production of precious metal bars and rounds.

Difference between Rounds and Coins

The primary, and most important, difference between rounds and coins is the legal tender status of the final product. While rounds and coins from various mints often have the same silver content, .999 or .9999 purity, only coins from a sovereign mint, such as the United States Mint can hold status as legal tender for all debts private and public.

As mentioned, private mints are not permitted to strike coins as currency. Therefore, their products are often labeled as silver rounds. Additionally, while most bullion coins produced by sovereign mints can be used in Precious Metal IRA accounts, few silver rounds enjoy this status.

With that all said, silver rounds still hold immense value because of their purity. This means that those looking for an affordable way to invest their wealth in precious metals have access to silver rounds to meet that goal.

Great American Mint Silver Rounds

The most popular products from Great American Mint are its lineup of silver rounds. The mint produces two distinctly different sets of silver rounds each year. In one category are the silver rounds it produces bearing iconic images featured on historic US silver coins from the 19^th and 20^th century. The other category consists of Great American Mint branded rounds that are designed in conjunction with internal and external designers.

Among the most popular Great American Mint silver rounds are those from the first category. These rounds are an excellent option for those who cannot afford or are unable to find these historic coins in the marketplace today. Available designs include the following:

• Morgan Silver Dollar: Perhaps the most coveted coin from American history, the Morgan Silver Dollar was struck from 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921. It featured a brilliant depiction of Lady Liberty’s left-profile bust on the obverse, and an American bald eagle on the reverse.
• Walking Liberty Half Dollar: Designed by Adolph A. Weinman, the Walking Liberty image first appeared on a half-dollar coin from 1916 to 1947 and today is used by the United States Mint on the nation’s official silver bullion coin, the American Silver Eagle.
• Buffalo Nickel: James Earle Fraser’s popular nickel design from 1913 featured Black Diamond, a resident bison in New York’s Central Park Zoo, on the reverse, and a Native American chieftain on the obverse.
• Mercury Dime: One of the more unique images of Liberty to appear on an American coin was that featured on the so-called Mercury Dime. The coin’s design earned the name because a younger image of Liberty was depicted wearing a winged crown similar to that of the Roman messenger god Mercury.

Each of these rounds is struck in .999 pure silver and available in one troy ounce weight. You can purchase these rounds in individual plastic flips, tubes of 20 rounds, or boxes of 500 rounds. Each round features its original design from the historic coin, with any reference to the United States Mint and its monetary value removed in favor of Great American Mint branding.

Great American Mint Silver Bars

Many of the designs available on Great American Mint Silver Rounds are used in the production of the mint’s truly unique silver round bars. These bars contain one or ten ounces of .999 pure silver, and feature the obverse image from each round impressed into the surface of a rectangular bar, hence the name silver round bars.

In addition to the silver round bars, the Great American Mint produces its own branded silver bar that features the GRAMMCO name and logo. The reverse of all bars, including the silver round bars, features the GRAMMCO name and the company’s logo in a repeating pattern.

Purchasing Great American Mint Precious Metals on Silver.com

Your purchase of Great American Mint precious metal products can be completed using credit/debit cards, paper checks, PayPal, or bank wire transfers. Please be advised that paper checks take four to six business days to process, credit/debit cards take one business day, and PayPal and bank wire payments process immediately.

At this time, Silver.com does not accept Discover or American Express credit/debit cards. All customers paying with paper check or bank wire transfer receive a 4% discount on the purchase price.

Silver.com offers and affordable, tiered scale for shipping that determines your shipping costs based upon your overall purchase price. All orders above $3,000 qualify for free shipping and insurance. These costs cover standard shipping. If you’d like expedited shipping, that is available at an additional cost.

If you have any questions for a Silver.com associate about Great American Mint products, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’re available on the phone at 888-989-7223, online using our live web chat, and via email.