Privacy Policy

Overview

Your privacy is of the highest concern to the United States Mint. This Privacy Policy Statement covers the entire United States Mint Web site, including the online store and the informational section. It also covers official United States Mint pages and activities on third-party web sites.

The United States Mint is now also the official online retailer for the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) currency and print products. In this Privacy Policy statement, when we refer to the online store, we mean “catalog.usmint.gov”, the part of our Web site where we offer United States Mint and BEP numismatic products for sale and offer related services such as promotional/informational emailed newsletters. References to the online store do not include any third-party Web site through which we or our contractors may distribute the products we offer. When we refer to the informational section of our Web site, we mean “www.usmint.gov“, the part of our Web site where we provide information on the United States Mint and its circulating coins and numismatic programs (including collecting basics, material for educators, sales data and FOIA reading room materials). When we refer to the Web site, we mean both the informational section and the online store. When we refer to a purchase via a United State Mint retail point of sale, we mean only sales made directly by the United States Mint to the public over the counter at the United States Mint headquarters store in Washington, DC, and at conventions and other events where the United States Mint is onsite selling product directly, but not sales by private companies that purchase products from the United States Mint and resell them to the public (such as the operators of the retail sales shops at our Philadelphia and Denver facilities), whether or not under contract with the United States Mint.

To serve you better, we continue to update our electronic commerce system and services, including the online store and other sales-related services (such as order processing and fulfillment). As a result, we have made important changes in our data collection and use practices, so we encourage you to read through this policy carefully before interacting with our Web site. As we continually strive to improve our online services, our information practices may continue to evolve, so please check back here often for changes to our Privacy Policy Statement.

Security and privacy safeguards

The United States Mint Web site is an official United States Government System, which may be used only for authorized purposes. For Web site security purposes and to ensure that this service remains available to all users, we employ software that can monitor network traffic and identify unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage. Use of this system constitutes consent to such monitoring and auditing. Uploading or changing information, or attempting to upload or change information, on this service are strictly prohibited and may be punishable under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 and the National Information Infrastructure Protection Act. Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, this monitoring and auditing is not used to identify individual users or their usage habits.

As a government agency, the United States Mint is committed to the security of its information systems. The United States Mint maintains a robust information security program. United States Mint information systems are safeguarded by an interlocking matrix of technical, operational and management controls designed to prevent any compromise of information confidentiality, integrity or availability. The United States Mint reviews and tests these security controls as part of an ongoing process to ensure that personally identifiable information about the public is protected as it is being processed, when it is transmitted, and while it is being stored on any United States Mint information technology system. Electronic customer data are stored in electronic databases in physically secured facilities with restricted access that is further controlled by user authentication protocols.

If you choose to transmit or receive personal information electronically (such as by email), your information must travel over the Internet to reach its destination. You should be aware that we cannot guarantee confidentiality across the Internet. The United States Mint uses Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) with Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption for all connections to our Web site, including credit card purchases from our online store. You also may purchase our products by telephone at 1-800-USA-MINT (1-800-872-6468), directly from a United State Mint retail point of sale at our Washington, DC, headquarters store or at an event at which we have a mobile retail sales presence, and from one of the contractor-operated sales venues at our facilities in Philadelphia, PA, or Denver, CO (not United State Mint retail points of sale, but contractor operated shops).

Children’s privacy

The United States Mint does not attempt to collect personally identifiable information online from children under the age of 13. In accordance with our Terms of Use, by submitting personally-identifiable information to the United States Mint – such as your email address, name, or postal address – you are warranting that you are 18 years of age or older. Additionally, before making an online purchase, creating an online account, or subscribing to our emailed newsletters Product and Promotion Updates, Lessons That Make Cents, News Releases, or Coins Online, you will be asked to expressly confirm that you are at least 18 years old.

Information collected and stored automatically

The United States Mint uses software to create summary Web site statistics. We store and use these statistics to manage and improve our Web site and the services we offer. Except in authorized law enforcement investigations, we do not use our security and system monitoring software, online store’s chat application, or online store’s Web measurement applications (unless you opt in to online store data collections and uses) to identify you or to associate you with your personal usage habits. If you visit our Web site solely to read or download information – and do not provide personally identifying information or opt in to certain data collections and uses (by purchasing online, creating an account or subscribing to an emailed newsletter) – we collect and store as anonymous only the following:

• Networking: the domain you use to access the Internet and connection speed
• When/Where: the date, time, and region from which you access our Web site
• Content: pages you visited and files you downloaded on our Web site
• Referrer: the Internet address of a Web site that may have referred (linked) you to our Web site
• Device/Browser: technical information about the computer or device you use to access our website (e.g., operating system/device type, screen resolution and color, plugin support, and language)

A variety of Web measurement tools and applications we use collect and manage the above information, including security and system monitoring software, the third-party Google Web measurement service Google Analytics, and Adobe Analytics and AgilOne Omni-Channel applications served by our ecommerce contractor.

Web Measurements And Customization

Some parts of our Web site use Web measurement and customization technologies such as tags and “cookies” – small files placed on your device’s hard drive or in your browser memory when you access a Web site.

We use three types:

1. Single session. These expire when you close your browser, and then are automatically deleted from your computer or device. We use them to improve navigation and keep you connected to our Web site (e.g. to retain online shopping cart information until you complete your transaction). Our online Web site customer satisfaction survey provider, ForeSee (now Verint), also uses two session cookies on our online store and the information section of our Web site (other than the children’s and educators’ sections) to operate surveys we offer to visitors, without collecting Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (e.g. to manage sampling and control elements such as date and number of pages viewed). Session cookies served on our Web site are not used to collect personally identifiable information (PII), and we do not share data collected from them. Our use of these technologies is “Tier 1” according to Office of Management and Budget Memorandum 10-22, Guidance for Online Use of Web Measurement and Customization Technologies (OMB M-10-22).
2. Multi-session without PII. These remember your device (but not you personally) and browsing on our Web site through multiple visits. We use them in several ways:

• We use applications such as SalesForce Commerce Cloud, formerly called Demandware (electronic commerce Web platform), Adobe Analytics and AgilOne Omni-Channel through our ecommerce contractor, PFSweb, Inc. If you have cookies enabled on your browser, these applications collect, store and manage device and browsing information anonymously when you visit our online store. They collect only a part of your IP address, and do not collect PII, or connect anonymous information with you unless you have affirmatively indicated that you wish to opt in to allow Tier 3 personalized data collection and use (when you create an online shopping account, purchase online as a guest, or subscribe to a promotional/informational emailed newsletter). If you have not opted-in, we use this information to recognize your device when you visit our online store, analyze browsing on our online store and observe trends, make product recommendations based on those trends to visitors to our online store and improve our online shopping experience generally. For visitors who have not opted-in, this use of multi-session technology is “Tier 2” as that term is described in OMB Memo M-10-22.
• We also use the third-party Web measurement service Google Analytics. When you visit the informational part of our Web site or our online store, Google Analytics anonymously collects and analyzes your browsing. It masks your IP address, does not collect PII, and its cookies are set to expire after a period of time from your last visit to our Web site. After they expire, these cookies are automatically deleted by your computer. Data collected by Google Analytics is automatically sent to Google’s system and is immediately aggregated in a manner that does not identify any individual user. We receive Web measurement reports with statistics from Google Analytics that do not identify who you are. Neither Google Analytics nor the United States Mint is able to identify you by using such technologies. The data collected is only retained for as long as is needed to analyze and optimize our Web site and is accessible only to employees whose position necessitates it. This use is “Tier 2” according to OMB Memo M-10-22.
• We use a third-party service, ForeSee (now Verint), to manage our government customer satisfaction surveys on our online store and the information section of our Web site (other than the children’s and educators’ sections). In addition to its two session cookies, Verint uses a persistent cookie that prevents the same visitor from being presented with another survey invitation for a specified period of time. These cookies expire at a set time and are automatically deleted. They do not collect PII or identify you personally, and do not collect IP addresses. This use is “Tier 2” according to OMB Memo M-10-22.

3. Multi-session with PII. We use these to provide you with a modern, convenient, and customized online shopping and email subscription service. They remember the way you interact with our Web site through multiple visits, and can collect PII about you or allow us to recognize you (not just your device). This use is “Tier 3” as that term is used in OMB M-10-22. As required by OMB M-10-22 and United States Department of the Treasury directives, we have received the necessary permission for each “Tier 3” use described below from the United States Department of the Treasury Chief Information Officer, and have provided the required notice on the United States Department of the Treasury Open Government Web site.