Cancellation of CNB reservations

A number of collectors of Czech National Bank commemorative coins have received the following e-mail from us these days:
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Dear Customer,

We are sorry, but we have to cancel your Czech National Bank commemorative coin reservation.

We have ordered the coin for you, but the order was cut short by the CNB and we will not receive the required quantity for our customers.

We are very sorry about this situation, but we are unable to influence or change it.

Thank you for your understanding.

Czech Mint team
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We understand that these customers are unhappy. Therefore, please allow us to explain the situation further:

Although the Czech Mint is the exclusive producer of Czech commemorative coins, it is by no means the exclusive seller of them. Once the Czech Mint has minted the coins, it hands over all the pieces to the Czech National Bank, which ordered their production. These coins are then allocated by the Czech National Bank to contract dealers throughout the country. There are dozens of such dealers and the Czech Mint is just one of them.

All dealers have the same conditions when buying Czech National Bank coins, and the Czech Mint is no exception. We only get as many coins as the Czech National Bank allocates to us.

We don't have any wholesale collectors to whom we sell tens or hundreds of coins. The "dealers", which many disgruntled collectors use as a mantra, most likely bought the coins directly from the Czech National Bank. In that case, they are independent dealers who have nothing to do with the Czech Mint in this respect.

The number of Czech National Bank contract dealers has grown significantly in recent months and is likely to grow even more significantly in the future. Within the framework of the CNB's rules, the limited amount of coins distributed among individual dealers is being reduced proportionally.

Which customer of the Czech Mint will receive a Czech National Bank coin is selected by an impartial computer algorithm that draws information from our digital database. A number of parameters are assessed for each individual coin buyer - for example, purchase history. The details of this system are purely internal and we therefore do not plan to make them public. However, it is certainly not the case that we are favouring anyone individually - even the employees of the Czech Mint do not receive special treatment.

A non-binding reservation at the Czech Mint becomes an order only when we confirm to the customer that the coin will be delivered to him. Reservations are primarily used to convey the collectors' interest to the coin issuer. We pass information on the quantity of reservations to the Czech National Bank, which then takes this into account when determining the issue cost. However, it should be stressed that, although the number of people interested in coins is constantly increasing, the issue cost has its limits set by the Czech National Bank at the beginning of the issue period.

It is worth noting that we have been forced to assess the entitlement of interested parties only in the last two years, when the market for coins and banknotes has changed considerably. We believe that the issuer, dealers and collectors will adapt to this change - or better still - that further change will occur to the benefit and satisfaction of all concerned.

The current excess of demand over coin supply is extreme. Similarly significant is the reduction in the number of coins we receive from the Czech National Bank for our customers. For example, the silver coin with the Tatra car motif will reach only a minimal number of customers. Given that the number we wanted to receive has been reduced by 86%, the coin will not even reach customers with a purchase history that appears to be rich and long.

We are in regular contact with the Czech National Bank to communicate your observations and our suggestions on the situation. We are doing our utmost to find a solution to this unfortunate situation.

We are extremely sorry that, after years of excellent cooperation, we are unable to provide all our customers with the requested pieces for their portfolio and we believe that this is a temporary situation that we will be able to resolve.

We thank all of you - our customers, collectors and investors - for your helpfulness, understanding and support in this difficult situation.

Your Czech Mint Team

The official statement of the Czech National Bank on the reduction and cancellation of orders for commemorative coins and banknotes can be found here.