Collectors buy larger share of Buffalo coins

Take a bow collectors, you are doing more than your share.

The calendar tells us that the year 2006 is soon ending and 2007 is about to begin. Did we learn anything?

Well, let?s take the new 24-karat Buffalo gold coin introduced in June. The fact that it is pure gold is meant to attract Far Eastern buyers who do not like the less pure 22-karat American Eagle gold coins.

They did not exactly storm the Mint demanding a supply. So far, the uncirculated bullion production totals 304,500 one-ounce coins.

Collectors have taken up 232,000 proof coins individually, or about 40 percent of the initial demand for the combined total so far. The first year of the American Eagle in 1986 saw collectors buy 24 percent of the supply.

So take a bow collectors, you are doing more than your share.

Collectors also seem to like the new ?W? mintmarked uncirculated silver Eagle. The individual sales number continues to move ahead to 183,486. They also are in anniversary sets.