Did buyers know?

Did buyers of gold and silver bullion coins know something the sophisticates of the financial markets didn’t ahead of the dramatic stock market declines of late August and early September?

We probably will never know, but something propelled the scramble to buy gold and silver American Eagle coins in June and July.

In August sales came off the boil, but were still fairly strong. Is that an advance all-clear signal, or at least some sign that things won’t get worse?

Surely the past three months results will be dissected by the experts to try to find the answer.

On the surface, this is what the experts will see:

Demand for bullion coins was so high in June and July that the Mint ran out of coins and was forced to suspend sales of silver Eagles in early July and restore its policy of rationing.

June silver Eagle sales were 4,840,000, up nearly 150 percent over May’s. 2,023,500.

June gold American Eagle sales likewise got much stronger. June sales of one-ounce Eagle coins was 62,500, up 362 percent from May’s 13,500. The July figure more than doubled the June level at 144,500.

But then August arrived. The stock market had severe problems, but gold one-ounce Eagle sales fell by roughly half to 78,500.

Silver Eagle sales declined in August by about 10 percent to 4,935,000.

If you feel the compulsion to keep checking on bullion sales figures to help you make sense of the financial headlines, you are not alone.

More Collecting Resources
• Start becoming a coin collector today with this popular course, Coin Collecting 101.
• Download The Metal Mania Seminar with David Harper to learn more about the metals market.