Buffalo gold sales surge ahead of Eagles

Should we start this column with Colorado quarter sales or the latest Buffalo gold report? After thinking about it for a split second, the Buffalo gold wins yet again for another week running.

Weekly sales numbers for the proof American Buffalo one-ounce coin jumped by 24,000. This reverses a trend where each weekly update was smaller than the last. Last week we reported a gain of 12,000. Sales are nearly at the halfway mark of the 300,000 possible.

Lest we read too much into this number, we are reminded of advice given us when visiting a hospital patient. Don?t pay any attention to the minute-by-minute blips. Just ask yourself whether the patient looks better than right after the surgery. So we will do that here and note that the coins have been available to the market for nearly one month. So far so good.

Another set of stats that we are watching are the proof platinum, gold and silver American Eagles. They had been crawling along (gold was stopped) and this week the numbers jumped a bit more than we have been used to for the prior couple of weeks. Perhaps this indicates post-July 4 demand, or perhaps it is post-July 4 Mint accounting catching up just a bit.

When we obtained this week?s numbers for bullion coin sales, they were dated just two days after last week?s report. That doesn?t leave much room for change and is the basis for writing about the July 4 accounting catch-up in the preceeding paragraph. Because we are accutely interested in the new Buffalo bullion coin, we received a separate e-mail giving us sales numbers a full six days after last week?s number, so they are current as of July 17 instead of July 13, as the Eagle totals are dated.

So far in July Buffalo one-ounce bullion coin sales totaled 68,500, that is up 42,500 ounces since last week?s report. A major shipment or two must have been made. In the original numbers, both the one-ounce gold Eagles and the gold Buffaloes rose by just 4,000 ounces each. Clearly now, fulfillment this month is leaning strongly toward Buffalo gold coins rather than continuing the tie we have written about the past couple of weeks. Let?s see what next week brings.

Summertime can be slow and perhaps that is affecting the rate of sales of some other Mint options. The two-roll set of Return to Monticello nickels was up by just 6,255 sets. That?s not a particularly noteworthy number, but we mention it because we have been following this closely in recent weeks. Other items seem to moving along in a consistent manner.

Silver proof sets moved forward a bit, the five-quarter set by 8,189 sets and the 10-coin set by 21,372. The five-quarter clad proof set barely beat out the silver version, registering a gain of 8,477. The 10-coin set came in with a substantial 44,586 increase from last week. It is nice to see that the old hobby staple remains popular.

Have you ordered your 2006 uncirculated coin set? Sales began July 18 and we expect numbers by next week.