99 -- United States Mint BAU A-76 Announcement

The primary mission of the United States Mint is to mint and issue circulating coins to meet the needs of the United States. To meet this mission more efficiently, the United States Mint was preparing to conduct a public-private competition to determine whether procuring ready-to-coin blanks (planchets) to produce the five-cent, dime, quarter-dollar, half-dollar and one-dollar circulating coinage would be more cost-effective than procuring base metal strip for the production of planchets in house. The Department of the Treasury, after careful consideration of all factors, has decided to cancel the public-private competition under solicitation #USM-HQ-05-066. The rationale for this action is that business conditions have changed significantly since the initial planning for the competition. Metal prices have increased considerably over the last three years and the production of the Presidential $1 Coin has caused substantial changes to the production environment. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the mission of the United States Mint to cancel the proposed public-private competition.