A buying frenzy for the 2015 High Relief $100 gold piece ran out of fizz before sellout.
Buyers took 36,686 pieces of an available 50,000 on the first day of sales July. 30. In the first hour alone, the Mint said it sold 30,000 coins at a price of $1,490 each.
By Aug. 2, sales had vaulted to 41,930.
However, as soon as the Mint posted the message on its website that new orders were back ordered and would not be delivered until Oct. 1, the sales rate dropped dramatically.
By Tuesday, Aug. 4, the recorded sales number was 42,146, up 216 coins.
On Aug 5, the Mint put the sales total at 42,167, up just 21 pieces in a 24-hour period.
Whether the Mint would even be able to sell the remaining 7,833 pieces suddenly became a serious question.
Last year’s gold Kennedy half dollar still hasn’t managed to reach a sellout of the 75,000 maximum a year after the coin went on the market despite sales of 56,694 coins in the opening hours of availability and 62,341 in the first five days.
What effect this lack of sellout will have on secondary market trading and pricing is explored in an article by Connor Falk.
The new coin was shipped out quickly. As of midnight Aug. 5, 29,421 had gone out to their new owners. The Mint is confident it will fulfill the rest of the orders by early September despite an Oct. 1 date published on its website.
The gold $100 depicts a new rendition of Miss Liberty paired with a flying eagle on the reverse.
Its high relief puts it in a category it shares with the Saint-Gaudens Ultra High Relief coin struck by the Mint in 2009.
This article was originally printed in Numismatic News Express.
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