US Mint Sales: Grant $1s; Yellowstone, Olympic 5 Oz Silver Coins Debut

Several products prominently appear for the first time in the latest weekly sales figures released by the United States Mint. Two of them share the same size, the collector Yellowstone National Park 5-Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin and the investor Olympic National Park 5-Ounce Silver Bullion Coin.

The collector Yellowstone silver uncirculated coin launched Tuesday, May 17. First day sales reached 18,143, or 67.2 percent of their 27,000 maximum. The United States Mint indicated 24,626 were sold as of Sunday, leaving 2,374 remaining. It took two weeks for the debuting Hot Springs National Park 5-Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin to sell out. It appears the Yellowstone 5-ouncer will soon join it.

The investment-grade Olympic silver bullion coin was released on Monday to the Mint’s network of Authorized Purchasers (APs) who resell bullion products. With an expected minimum mintage of 126,700, APs ordered 60,700 on the first day. There is no specific rush for the APs to place orders quickly, as they are given several days to purchase their allotted amount before unsold inventory is made available to those who want more.

As discussed in an earlier article, the sales debut of the 2011 American Buffalo Gold Proof Coin came in at 5,782, or nearly $10.18 million. The coins started significantly slower than previous issues, no doubt hurt by their opening $1,760 price — the highest collectors have ever had to pay for the 24-karat gold coin. Demand is likely to be pressured further this week as the United States Mint, in response to higher gold prices, raised the coin’s price on Wednesday to $1,810.

The final set of United States Mint products to debut last week were rolls of Ulysses S. Grant Presidential $1 coins. Sales opened with a combined total of 40,199, split out by 20,174 Philadelphia (P) rolls and 19,945 Denver (D) rolls. The levels were lower than the previous Andrew Johnson $1s. Their debut sales came in at 23,211 (P) rolls and 22,525 (D) rolls for a total of 45,734.

In general, demand was higher for numismatic coins last week. The previous United States Mint sales report indicated a healthier pick-up for 30 United States Mint products. In contrast, week-over-week sales increases improved further with 56 products rallying in this round. Many of the collector gold coins realized better gains, helped by last Wednesday’s price cuts. Those cuts, as mentioned earlier, were reversed this Wednesday. Finally, and in a notable milestone, the 2011 Silver Proof Set topped 400,000 in sales since its release on January 25.

The following tables offer the latest bullion and numismatic coin sales figures as provided by the United States Mint:

US Mint Bullion Products Sales

*The as of date for US Mint bullion coin sales is Wednesday, May 25, 2011, except for the ATB 5-ounce coins which is Monday, May 23. 53,000 of the 2010-dated 1 oz Gold Eagles remained for sell this year, and buyers must order one of them for every four of a newly dated issue. The bullion sales figures also include 469,500 of the 2010-dated Silver Eagle coins sold in January.

US Mint Collector Products Sales

*NLA – No Longer Available.

The collector coin sales figures above have an "as of date" of May 22, 2011.