2011 5 oz. on sale
This article was originally printed in Numismatic News.
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The first two of five 2011 America the Beautiful 5-ounce bullion coins are up for sale by dealers nationwide.
“We’ve had them for sale on our website for a little more than 36 hours and I would say sales are brisk,” said John Maben, owner of Maben Coin Mart, a division of John Maben Rare Coins, “but I don’t think they are anywhere near what they would be if we didn’t just have the 15 percent correction in the price of silver.”
Coins honoring Gettysburg National Military Park and Glacier National park were made available to Authorized Purchasers April 25.
By the end of business May 3, the nine Authorized Purchasers had ordered 118,900 of each coin, said U.S. Mint Director of Public Affairs Tom Jurkowsky, leaving 7,600 of each coin still available for purchase from the Mint.
2011 U.S. Coin Digest: Bullion Coinage |
The Mint has not set restrictions on the price or quantity of coins sold by the AP’s, as it did for the 2010 bullion coins.
“I’m surprised they are selling as well as they are considering that silver has gone down a lot,” Maben said. “It’s corrected between 15 and 20 percent off its high.”
Silver closed at $48.58 a troy ounce on April 29, but had dropped almost $10 to $39.38 on May 4.
“People tend to buy into a rising market and then tend to freeze up or curtail their buying when the market is in decline,” Maben said. “It’s probably the wrong thing to do.”
But corrections to the market scare people, he said. If the price of silver goes down 15 percent in four days, the public worries that it might go down another 15 percent in four more days, he said.
But that’s not necessarily the case.
“If you believed in silver at $48, then why wouldn’t you believe in it at today’s price of $39.50?” Maben asked.
And apparantly there are still enough believers out there wanting to buy the 5-ounce bullion coins.
“Sales are good,” Maben said. “We’re pleased.”
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