"Cost recovery basis" means no net costs to the taxpayer. They can even run slightly above costs and return the surplus to the general fund.
My issue is that the mint exists to make circulation coins. Not to make collector coins, that's a side business.
And it seems that a disproportionate amount of overhead and fixed costs are being born by the collectors.
Yet if you look at the mint director's report collector coins are the dog and circulation coins are the tail...
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-----Burton
50 year / Life / Emeritus
ANA member (joined 12/1/1973)
Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA
Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, OnLine Coin Club
Owned by four cats and a wife of 40 years (joined 1983)