Mint News Blog

The four week ordering window for the United States Mint’s 2013 West Point Silver Eagle Set will conclude next week on June 6, 2013 at 5:00 PM ET. This special set is issued to mark the 75th anniversary of the West Point Mint and includes American Silver Eagles with a reverse proof and enhanced uncirculated finish.

Orders for the set opened on May 9, 2013 at 12:00 Noon ET. Initial demand for the set was heavy, slowing the US Mint’s website to a crawl and briefly resulting in the online catalog being taken offline. Through the opening weekend, orders had been received for more than 180,000 sets, which far exceeded the sales for last year’s 2012 San Francisco Silver Eagle Set during a comparable period.

The US Mint has provided a sales odometer on the product page, which has been updated each weekday. The data from the daily updates is shown below. The first number column represents the daily change, while the second number column represents the reported cumulative sales total.

As can be seen, following the initial surge, the pace of daily orders soon dropped to a much lower level. This bottomed with a daily increase of 974 sets, before pushing higher this week.

While there seems to be a great deal of enthusiasm about this set which contains two exclusive coins and the first ever enhanced uncirculated Silver Eagle, many will be watching the sales numbers to see how the final mintage might compare to the previously released anniversary sets. The 20th Anniversary Set released in 2006 had a final audited mintage of 248,875. The 25th Anniversary Set released in 2011 sold out of its maximum mintage of 100,000. Most recently, the 2012 San Francisco Silver Eagle Set, which was minted based on demand during a four week ordering window, had final adjusted unaudited sales of 224,981.

Since last year’s San Francisco Set was offered in a similar fashion as this year’s West Point Set, does this provide some clues about what to expect next week? During the final week of sales of the San Francisco Set, the US Mint received orders for 75,714 units, which accounted for 30.1% of the unadjusted final sales total. See full sales data here.

Or is it the case that this year more of the overall demand moved to the opening days of availability? In this case, we might see sales for the West Point Set stall out around the 250,000 mark.

Today, May 28, 2013 at 12:00 Noon ET, the United States Mint will begin sales of the 2013-W Uncirculated American Silver Eagle. These collector coins are struck on specially burnished blanks and carry the “W” mint mark.

This will represent the fourth different collector version of the Silver Eagle offered by the US Mint for this year. Sales for the standard proof version with “W” mint mark began on January 24, 2013. This was followed by the offering of the 2013 West Point Silver Eagle Set, containing reverse proof and enhanced uncirculated versions with the “W” mint mark. The special sets are available during an ordering window which opened May 9, 2013 and will close on June 6, 2013. The Mint has also offered the 2013 Congratulations Set, which contains the standard proof version with “W” mint mark in special packaging.

The 2013-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle features Adolph A. Weinman’s classic Walking Liberty design on the obverse, with John Mercanti’s heraldic eagle design on the reverse. Each coin is struck in .999 fine silver with a weight of 1.0000 troy ounces and diameter of 40.60 mm.

The coins are offered without a stated maximum mintage and without a household ordering limit. Initially, pricing for the coins was established at $53.95 per coin through a publication in the Federal Register made in December of the prior year. The coins were repriced to $48.95 through a subsequent publication made earlier this month. The US Mint indicates that, as with all products containing precious metals, this price remains subject to change.

The collector uncirculated or “burnished” version of the American Silver Eagle was introduced in 2006 as part of the 20th Anniversary Set. Later in the year, the Mint also offered the coins for individual sale. For the following two years in 2007 and 2008, the collectible uncirculated Silver Eagles were also offered individually, as well as within the Annual Uncirculated Dollar Coin Set. The offering was canceled for the following two years due to the high demand for bullion coins, but resumed in 2011.

The 2012-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle currently has the mintage low for a collectible uncirculated coin of the series with the “W” mint mark. The individual version had sold out in March with last reported sales of 202,504. This was followed by the sell out of the 2012 Annual Uncirculated Dollar Coin Set earlier this month at last reported sales of 28,368.

Numismatic Gold Coin Price Decrease Possible

Last week, a price decrease for the United States Mint’s numismatic gold products was narrowly missed. This week, the set up is similar with the potential for a price decrease, which will depend on where the Wednesday PM Fix price falls.

Under the US Mint’s pricing structure for gold and platinum numismatic products, in order for a pricing change to take place the average London Fix price from the prior Thursday AM to current Wednesday AM must be within a different tier compared to the prior week. As a secondary criteria, the Wednesday PM Fix price must agree directionally with any potential change. Last week, although the average price was in a lower tier, the Wednesday PM Fix price ended up in the same tier, negating the change.

For this week, the average price is currently within the $1,350 to $1399.99 range. This is one tier lower than the range of $1,400 to $1,499.99 which is used to establish current prices. In the most likely scenario, as long as the Wednesday PM London Fix price is below $1,400, then a price decrease should take place.

Prices would be decreased proportionally by $50 for each ounce of gold content. The impacted products would include the 2012 First Spouse Gold Coins, 2013 commemorative gold coins, 2013 Proof Gold Eagles, and the recently released 2013 Proof Gold Buffalo. If applicable, pricing changes have usually been implemented around mid-morning on Wednesday.