Monday, August 22, 2011

All US Mint Numismatic Gold Coins Suspended

Posted by Mint News Blog | Filed Under: US Mint

This morning the US Mint has suspended sales of all remaining numismatic gold coin offerings. The move comes as the market price of gold has jump another $35 to nearly $1,890 per ounce. Prior to the suspension, products were priced based on an average gold price in the $1,750 to $1,799.99 range.

The US Mint’s pricing policy covering most numismatic gold coins allows for price changes to take place as frequently as weekly based on the average market price of gold based on the London Fix prices from the previous Thursday AM to the current Wednesday AM.

Pricing changes have generally taken place mid-morning Wednesday when all of the data points were available. The US Mint has reserved the right to suspend sales early “in the event that the selling price of United States Mint gold bullion products begin approaching the sale price of the gold numismatic products.” They invoked this option for the first time two weeks ago, and apparently for the second time today.

This year, pricing increases will have taken place on ten separate occasions on February 16, March 2, April 13, April 27, May 25, July 20, July 27, August 10, August 17, and likely later this week on August 25. Only one price decrease has taken place on May 18.

Commemorative gold coins, which are not covered by the numismatic gold coin pricing policy had their sales suspended on August 12. The US Mint plans to introduce a pricing grid for these products. The suspension still remains in place while the grid is being developed and implemented.

Late last week, the US Mint also suspended sales of the 2010 Silver Proof Set and 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set, pending repricing.

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Friday, August 19, 2011

25th Anniversary Silver Eagle Set Announced

Posted by Mint News Blog | Filed Under: Silver Eagles

The United States Mint has just announced plans to issue a five-coin American Silver Eagle 25th Anniversary Set. The maximum mintage would be 100,000 units, with an ordering limit of 5 per household, and anticipated start of sales in late October.

From the available information, the set seems to contain two coins unique to the set. If this is correct, these two coins would be tied for the second lowest mintage Silver Eagles, after the key date 1995-W Proof Silver Eagle.

The US Mint’s press release indicates that each set will contain:

  • one Proof Silver Eagle from the West Point Mint
  • one Uncirculated Silver Eagle from the West Point Mint
  • one Uncirculated Silver Eagle from the San Francisco Mint
  • one reverse proof Silver Eagle from the Philadelphia Mint
  • one bullion Silver Eagle

The 2011-W Proof Silver Eagle is currently available for sale from the US Mint individually, priced at $59.95. The 2011-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle has been scheduled for individual release on September 29, 2011 with the price not yet announced. Bullion versions of the Silver Eagle have been available since the start of the year, produced at the West Point Mint or San Francisco Mint without a mint mark.

The two potentially unique coins included in the set are the 2011-S Uncirculated Silver Eagle and the 2011-P Reverse Proof Silver Eagle. Provided they are not released in any other format, these coins would have a mintage of 100,000 each, in line with the maximum production level established for the set.

In 2006, the US Mint offered the 20th Anniversary Silver Eagle Set, which included the 2006-W Proof Silver Eagle, 2006-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle, and 2006-P Reverse Proof Silver Eagle, priced at $100, limited to 250,000, with a limit of ten per household.  Additional offerings included a 20th Anniversary Gold Eagle Set, which included a similar line up of one ounce gold coins, with the sets priced at $2,610, limited to 10,000 units and ten sets per household. Finally, the 20th Anniversary Gold and Silver Eagle Set  included the one ounce 2006-W Uncirculated Gold Eagle and 2006-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle, priced at $850 per set and was limited to 20,000 units. The first two sets sold out within weeks. The final set sold out after a few months.

Following the release of the 20th anniversary sets, the US Mint later offered the uncirculated coins with the “W” mint mark separately. The reverse proof coins remained unique to the set.

Earlier in the year, I had speculated that the US Mint might offer a 25th anniversary set for the American Silver Eagle. From the details released so far, the offering seems to be an excellent opportunity for collectors. Barring any unforeseen factors, the sets should sell out quickly and move on to secondary market success.

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Friday, August 19, 2011

Take a Second Look at Your Numismatic ATB Five Ounce Silver Coins

Posted by Mint News Blog | Filed Under: America the Beautiful Quarters, Annual Sets

Yesterday, while organizing some of my coins, I took a closer look at the 2010-P America the Beautiful 5 oz. Silver Uncirculated Coins that I had received from the US Mint. I was surprised to notice that one of the coins appears to have the “light finish”, which differs from the typical vapor blast finish that was supposed to be used on the coins.

When news of the variety first surfaced, I had taken a close look at my Grand Canyon coins. This was the design where the vast majority of the “light finish” coins were being encountered. (See NGC’s article on the new variety and Louis Golino’s article for Coin Update.) I did not think to take a look at the previously received designs. The “light finish” coin I discovered yesterday was on a Hot Springs coin.

Below are images of the Hot Springs (left) and a regular Yellowstone (right). Click on the images for giant sized versions.

Thinking back, I can see how I did not recognize the variety at first. As I had received each design from the US Mint, I took a look at the coin and then packaged it back up and put it away. Since the Hot Springs design was the first, I had no point of comparison for how a silver coin with a vapor blast finish was supposed to look. Comparing the coin to another with the proper finish made the difference very apparent.

NGC’s online census shows the majority of “light finish” coins occurring for the Grand Canyon design. Out of the 1,441 coins that they have graded, 255 of them have been given the light finish designation. The online census shows one “light finish” for Hot Springs and none for any of the other designs. Whether or not the variety is more scarce for certain designs remains to be seen. It may be that collectors and dealers started looking for the difference in finish after NGC’s announcement. As collectors go back into their collections and take a second look at their coins, more of the varieties may surface.

If you haven’t already, take another look at your numismatic ATB 5 oz. silver coins.

Click the images below for giant sized versions of the full obverse and reverse.

Other News

The US Mint has just suspended sales of the 2010 Silver Proof Set and 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set. I had mentioned the possibility of this occurring back when silver recrossed the $40 per ounce mark. Today, the price of silver jumped above $42 per ounce.

Presumably, the suspended 2010 silver annual sets will be repriced at a higher level and sales resumed. This would be the second repricing during the history of the offering.

The 2010 Silver Proof Set went on sale August 24, 2010 priced at $56.95. On March 18, 2010, the set was repriced to $64.95 when silver was $35.15 per ounce. The 2010 ATB Quarters Silver Proof Set went on sale May 27, 2010 priced at $32.95. On March 18, 2011, the set was repriced to $39.95.

The US Mint continues to sell the 2011 Silver Proof Set priced at $67.95 and the 2011 ATB Quarters Silver Proof Set priced at $41.95. If the market price of silver continues to rise, suspension of these products might not be far behind.

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Thursday, August 18, 2011

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Dollar Rolls

Posted by Mint News Blog | Filed Under: Presidential Dollars

Today August 18, 2011 at 12:00 Noon ET, the United States Mint will begin sales of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Dollar Rolls. This will be the 19th release in the ongoing Presidential $1 Coin Program.

The obverse of the coin features a portrait of the President, along with inscriptions indicating the order of the Presidency, the years of the term “1877-1881″, and the motto “In God We Trust”. The reverse carries a rendition of the Statue of Liberty with inscriptions “United States of America” and the denomination expressed as “$1″. The date, mint mark, and motto “E Pluribus Unum” are presented on incuse edge lettering. Both the obverse and reverse designs are by Don Everhart.

The United States Mint will offer 25-coin rolls from either the Philadelphia or Denver Mint facility. The circulating quality coins are packaged in wrappers that include the US Mint logo, mint mark, face value, and the name of the President. Each roll is priced at $39.95 each, plus applicable shipping and handling.

Presidential $1 Coin numismatic roll sales have showed a general decline over the course of the series. Sales for recent releases are nowhere near the levels experienced when the first design was released.

For the George Washington Presidential Dollar, past sales reports show that the US Mint sold 137,864 Philadelphia and 138,046 Denver rolls during the extended availability period, which lasted until February 2009. This was in addition to more than 8,000 250-coin bags, sold across both facilities. (The US Mint no longer offers numismatic 250-coin bags for the series.)

The recently sold out Franklin Pierce Presidential Dollar rolls sold 35,731 Philadelphia and 34,942 Denver rolls. There was an uptick in demand for Abraham Lincoln Presidential Dollar rolls, which also recently sold out. Last reported sales were 48,832 Philadelphia and 48,748 Denver rolls.

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Monday, August 15, 2011

Vote on the 2012 Native American Dollar Designs

Posted by Mint News Blog | Filed Under: Other Coins

The Native American $1 Coin Program began in 2009 and has featured annually rotating reverse designs representing contributions and accomplishments of Native Americans.

So far, designs have featured Agriculture with the “Three Sisters” method of planting, Government with the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy, and Diplomacy with the written peace treaty between Native Americans and the settlers at Plymouth.

The 2012 Native American Dollar design will feature trade routes of the 17th century and the spread of the horse. The United States Mint recently provided the thirteen design candidates for coin. Some of the designs are traditional depictions while others are done in the style of Native American ledger art.

While the final design selection is made by the Treasury of the Secretary, a large number of groups review the designs and provide their own recommendations. The authorizing legislation provides for review or comment by the Commission of Fine Arts, the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, the Committee on Indian Affairs of the Senate, the Congressional Native American Caucus of the House of Representatives, and the National Congress of American Indians.

The CFA and CCAC both commented favorably on the ledger art designs, but both ended up recommending a traditional depiction NA-08. The remaining groups recommended NA-04, NA-07, and NA-08, which were all traditional depictions.

Coin Update News has previously provided coverage of the CFA’s discussion and recommendation and more recently the CCAC’s discussion. Each of the articles also includes large sized images of the candidates.

In this post, I wanted to provide Mint News Blog readers with a chance to vote on the design that they would like to see on the coin. This poll, of course, will not have any impact on the final design selection (unless the Secretary of the Treasury is reading). The poll will remain open for 7 days.


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