Buffalo gold pushes Eagles aside

This article was originally printed in Numismatic News.
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Was demand for gold down this week or simply shifted to the newly available one-ounce Buffalo bullion gold coin? This week at least, substitution seems logical. The Mint has sold 31,000 of the 2011 Buffalo coins but just 8,000 of the one-ounce American Eagle gold coins.

But then how do you explain no movement in the fractional gold sizes and the one-ounce silver American Eagle? Dare the Mint hope that it is catching up with market demand for the silver coin?

If you ever have wondered if the order in which coins are put on the market has any impact on sales, you might watch this year’s two commemorative offerings. Both of them have military themes. The Army coins went on sale first and are maintaining a sales lead. Will that lead hold up all year? We’ll see.

Then there are those darn Mount Hood quarters. The Mint drastically raised the sales numbers this week. Is the person who inputs the data wearing new bifocals and misses the right line?

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