Not yet gone to grandma’s?

If you are reading this on the day it was written, you haven’t gone over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house yet for a nice juicy turkey dinner.

It is hard sometimes to keep focused on the coin hobby when family obligations beckon, but let’s try.

First up, I need to point out a math error in my Monday blog. I slapped my forehead yesterday when I noticed it. It involved the prices of the Dolley Madison First Spouse gold coins. Everybody now knows they went up in price and many consider the increase a substantial one. I wrote that the increase was 19.14 percent on average. I should have written 23.67 percent. For some reason, I divided the difference between the higher and lower prices by the new higher number rather than the lower figure from which the comparison was being made.

The outcome does not alter any of the points I was trying to make, but it is an indication that I was sloppy Monday morning.

Second up, I see that the “W” uncirculated silver American Eagle coin has gone off sale from the Mint Web site. That is likely due to a depletion in the supply rather than the cost of silver bullion. As of this week’s Mint Statistics, the Mint had sold 558,810 of the coins. That figure is not as high as the 746,421 proofs sold so far, but it is a substantial number and few can complain that they didn’t have adequate chance to buy one.

Other items will be going off sale in the coming weeks as supplies run out. These are primarily bullion-related coins. The Mint’s bullion distributors are usually given the chance to take a last crack at inventory before the year closes. The weekly increase in gold and silver American Eagles and Buffalo gold totals seems to indicate that the pipeline is being filled.

The holidays are a popular time for bullion coins given as gifts. We will see if the higher prices lessen the demand this year or increase it.

I might have messed up the math Monday morning, but there is one figure that I know is correct. I already know how many pieces of pumpkin pie I want to eat tomorrow.

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving. The next post will be on Monday morning.