Braille commemorative wins weekly race

Imagine a week where the Louis Braille commemorative silver dollar dominates the news? Impossible? Well, this is probably that week. No, there was no sellout, but if you look at all the other sales numbers, the fact that the Braille proof number rose by 12,693, the uncirculated by 5,093 and the easy-open capsule uncirculated by 2,520 makes it stand out. The combined sales of 20,306 mean that sales are running at roughly 5 percent of the maximum supply each week. Since 36.33 percent of the maximum possible supply is gone, we theoretically can achieve a sellout in 12 or 13 weeks. Will it happen? Ay, there’s the rub. Sales do tend to tail off over time.

Bullion American Eagles have hardly gotten on the board this week, but that may be more a matter of the calendar than of demand or production. Only 1,500 one-ounce gold American Eagles were sold and no silver.

Sales of Puerto Rican quarters in 100-coin bags are moving along strongly. Buyers don’t have the option of obtaining the large 1,000-coin bags because they sold out quickly. That has helped focus even more attention on the 100-coin bags. Sales of the Philadelphia coin are already double that of the P-mint District of Columbia quarter in the same size bag, but remember this is the low-mintage piece. Sales of the Denver 100-coin bag lag a bit as as result, though the 14,600 number is still far stronger, by about 40 percent, than the District of Columbia Denver bag sales were.