Royal Australian Mint loses money

[interest]

I was watching Sky news & the ribbon flowing across the bottom of the screen said.
"Royal Australian Mint loses $4million dollars after tax"
Not good figures if it's up for sale.

[oh my florin]

Rather ironic isn't it?

[serial]

Yeh I call bull s on that
People who sell $3 worth of copper with $10 face value for over $100 only lose money if they are cooking the books

[drakesterling]

Following in the footsteps of the old Sydney Mint...

[colour]

Too much of too many good things for sale so the collector feels they are being taken advantage of is never a good look. So too make too many coins........

Something about a goose and a golden egg!

[nealeffendi]

Yeh I call bull s on that
People who sell $3 worth of copper with $10 face value for over $100 only lose money if they are cooking the books

The seigniorage on turning metal into money goes to Canberra and not the mint. Canberra almost certainly imposes all kinds of imposts on the mint that adds to the cost (public sector unions and red tape are obvious burdens). The book cooking might also include Canberra taking hefty dividends each year on their "investment"
Also is the Canberra mint the same as Melbourne mint as far as former workers go? I think we are still paying Melbourne mint pensions 45 years after it closed and I guess Canberra mint has hundreds (thousands?) of past and present staff that might have similar cushy benefits to be covered.

[coxspau]

http://www.skynews.com.au/business/business/national/2014/10/31/royal-australian-mint-makes--4m-loss.html

Says it all really. The article claims that the RAM made a loss due to the lack of anniversaries and highly engaging themes. I think the fact that they've managed to isolate almost everyone that has been interested is more the reason for their loss making business.

And when did the RAM turn into a profit centre? Shouldn't their reason for existing be to supply the nation with currency?

[nealeffendi]

That Sky News article is sloppy journalism. The RAM is the sole supplier of coins only if you disregard the Perth mint. They get the basics wrong so what else did they get wrong?

[Basil]

The thing that most punters are waking up to is "överseas buyers" get 10% off with no GST plus whatever the dealer discount is these days,another 10-15%,so the average Joe has no hope of getting in front of the curve.Apparently Coins are going from the Mint to NZ and then back again to Oz. so sellers can undercut the Mint's RRP and still make a tidy sum.I'm sure some of the posters on here will know more as i rarely get involved with Mint sales anymore,the Gold/Silver Coins are ridiculously overpriced IMO.

[humpybong]

Must be the overpaid executives that are costing a "MINT"

:taunt:

[runway]

It's only a paper loss called creative accounting.They make shitloads of profit,all businesses do it for tax reasons

[triplewitch]

As an overseas buyer, even without the GST and the benefit of the exchange rate when there is one, the cost of precious metal coins particularly has become prohibitive, more so in the last few years.  The cost of postage and insurance more than makes up for any price differential.
Incidentally, the one dealer I use outside the RAM does not remove GST when he sells his coins to me, but I have a special arrangement with postage and insurance.