The annual uncirculated dollar coin sets and six-quarter proof sets show increases, and January bullion Eagle sales of one-ounce gold and silver pieces are up this week.
Check the running annual sales totals for American Eagle and Buffalo bullion coins in the right-most column. This week’s numbers jumped by more than the numbers indicated by the September monthly box at the bottom of this page because of additional sales made in the final two days of August. These end-of-month numbers were substantial for the one-ounce silver Eagle where another 1,415,000 coins were sold in addition to the 175,000 at the beginning of September. This brings the running annual total to 29,126,000 coins.
Proof sets seem to be up, up and away this week.
More big jumps occurred in the proof American Eagle numbers and then they went off sale. The six-quarter clad proof set has been added to the page and 2001 Kennedy half dollar bags removed. More changes are coming.
There was surprising life in the one-ounce gold American Eagle proof number this week. It rose by 2,023. The other sales options just slogged along slowly. Collectors took only 78 of the half-ounce proofs in the past week while they purchased 120 of the quarter-ounce and 319 of the tenth-ounce pieces. The full set saw sales of an additional 441. None of these results looks like a house on fire, but the one-ounce piece has reached the halfway mark in terms of the maximum number that will be available.
Sales of bullion American Eagle gold and silver one-ounce coins perked up a tad this week.
Sales of the 2011 proof gold American Eagle coin options slowed dramatically this week.
Gold bullion prices have come to life in the last few days, with an ounce of the precious metal pushing past the $1,330 mark.
The Mint sold 12,429,000 silver Eagles in the first three months. If it kept that pace up all year the annual total would be nearly 50 million coins. This would represent yet another large increase in output as compared to the year before. The gold one-ounce Eagle on the other hand is setting a respectable pace of 263,500 coins in the quarter. If this pace were kept up for the entire year, annual sales would reach 1,054,000 coins, or a small drop from the 1,143,000 coins sold in 2010 and the 1,315,500 coins sold in 2009.
Could the silver American Eagle bullion sales total in 2012 actually come in lower than the 2011 number of nearly 40 million? If the first few weeks of 2012 are any indication, it could.