Nice round 50,000 number?

How many reverse proof 2013-W gold Buffalo coins were ordered by yesterday’s 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time deadline?

We will find out at 3 p.m. Eastern Time today, according to the Mint's website.

There is usually an order rush at the end of a popular program. The question in the case of the reverse proof gold coin is how strong will it be?

The current tally on the Mint’s odometer is 45,912.

Will the last-minute rush push that number to 50,000 or higher?

To do it, collectors would have had to plunk down over $7 million in those final sales hours.

Did they do it?

Some might have been unnerved by gold’s price weakness this week.

Some might have decided that the delivery delays encountered in the West Point silver American Eagle set program doesn’t bode well for timely delivery of these reverse proofs.

Some might have simply decided that they had ignored the offer for nearly a month and they could live without the coin.

Those are the excuses.

Do they matter?

In the end, I doubt it. Collectors are eternal optimists.

I expect when the final numbers are revealed, the total will have reached the 50,000 mark, and perhaps higher.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is winner of the 2013 Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."