Mint Delays Silver Air Force Medal

The U.S. Mint will delay the release of its Air Force silver medal until mid-July, it announced on June 22, the medal’s original release date.

The Mint says the total number of “Remind Me” email/text notifications received indicates that demand for the 2.5-ounce silver medal – the first in its new Armed Forces silver medal series – will exceed inventory, as the projected demand is greater than supply.

Other recent silver product offerings have resulted in an extraordinarily high volume of BOT (non-human) traffic, according to the Mint. These BOTs were programmed to conduct technology-driven transactions that interfered with the transactions of many customers.

The Mint indicated that it has identified a solution that is expected to mitigate most of the issues caused by BOT traffic.

“We are working diligently to put that solution in place, as it will enable our website to function more smoothly,” it said in the June 22 release. “Even this robust effort to improve product access remains limited by demand, which continues to outpace our supply of silver blanks. As a result, not everyone will be able to purchase this medal.”

A 1-ounce version of the Air Force silver medal will be available next year, and customers can now request “Remind Me” notifications for that medal. For more, visit catalog.usmint.gov.