US Mint Sales: Bullion Robust, Collector Coins Retreat

US Mint collector coins moved like molasses when compared to sales figures of two weeks ago. But bullion coins — especially gold — still had a little swagger in their step. October will be a robust month for American Eagles and American Buffalos.

These and other highlights follow:

• UHR Double Eagles took a significant hit, rising sadly by only 562. Since they went on sale Jan. 22, there has been one single instance when weekly sales were lower. The reason? Gold has been on a five day losing streak, which started last Thursday. It makes sense for collectors to be cautious in buying with expectations of a $50 price decline. We missed that reduction by just 28.8 cents.

• In the Lincoln category, the Chronicles sets were taken off standby status last week with the max 50,000 officially allocated. Lincoln Cent Proof Sets climbed by 4,900, which was less than half of the prior 10,921 increase.

• 2009 US Mint and US Mint Proof Sets were the biggest unit gainers, rising 21,826 and 22,613 respectively. The proof sets were actually up a tad bit. Not so for the mint sets which previously climbed by 74,474. The 500,000 milestone is still nearly 11K away.

• Three of the ten US Mint sold First Spouse Gold Coins did improve over the prior week. But numbers were not impressive as a group. 213 coins in total were sold versus the prior 514. Again, collectors may have been speculating some and waiting for a price drop.

• Coming back to bullion coins, Silver Eagles have already marked their best October ever, despite sales slowing slightly over the past seven days. As for American Buffalo Gold coins, in less than two weeks 110,500 have been purchased. That is already 64.2 percent of the total (172,000) that was sold in all of 2008.

Major US Mint coin sales follow:

US Mint Collector Coin Sales

(Data compare previous to current Mint sales reports)

*Sold out/no longer available.

Notable summaries of sales articles this week from CoinNews and sister sites follow:

• First Spouse Coin Sales Slip – FirstSpouseCoins.us
  Sales retreated again for the beautiful 24-karat First Spouse Gold Coins. In fact, the total unit increase for the seven day period was less than half of what it was in the prior report. Sarah Polk Proofs still led the First Spouse series by adding 79, but both Anna Harrison Proofs and Letitia Tyler Proofs lost …

• US Mint Silver Coins Cool, Bullion Eagles Near 23M – SilverCoinsToday.com
  US Mint sales numbers are often mixed when it comes to silver related collector products — demand for coins in one hand rise while those in the other decline, metaphorically speaking. October has been different. Silver coins have trended up or down as a group without the mixing …

• 2009 Lincoln Coin Sales Movement – 2009LincolnPennies.com
  Sales were modest for 2009 Lincoln products this time around. To clarify, there were no big spikes, like last week. The 2009 US Mint Proof Set climbed another 21,826 compared to last week’s 21,189. The redesigned pennies in the set were believed to make this year’s set more popular than previous years. Right now, over …

• Bullion Gold Buffalos Top 110K – CoinNews
  The United States Mint has sold 110,500 one-ounce American Buffalo $50 Gold Bullion Coins since they were released on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2009. To place that in perspective, in less than two weeks bullion dealers have purchased 64.2 percent of the total (172,000) that was sold in all of 2008 …

The non bullion coin sales figures above have an "as of date" of Oct. 25. The previous reported sales figures are located here. For an always updated reference of the latest articles, visit US Mint Sales Figures.