As market prices for silver surged above $35 an ounce on Thursday, the United States Mint stopped selling several of its numismatic products that contain the white metal, including all five of its 2011-dated America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins™ as well as its one ounce 2011-W Uncirculated American Silver Eagle.
"This product is temporarily unavailable for product repricing," states each information page associated with the numismatic products.
No other related coins or sets have been suspended at the time of this writing, including the annual 2011-2012 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Sets for $41.95, the annual 2011 Silver Proof Set for $67.95, or the newly released 2012 Infantry Soldier Proof Silver Dollars which are actually available at lower prices today than last year’s commemorative coins — $49.95 for the proof dollar, $44.95 for the uncirculated dollar and $51.95 for the Defenders of Freedom Set.
Suspensions of United States Mint numismatic products are not unusual following sharp movements in precious metals prices. The bureau has both raised and cut prices in the past based on how metals have performed. Previous coin suspensions have lasted for days and even weeks. In some instances, products have returned at their same pre-suspension prices when bullion stabilized.
The five America the Beautiful Five Ounce Coins suspended by the Mint include those honoring Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, Glacier National Park in Montana, Olympic National Park in Washington, Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi and Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma. Each of these coins contains five ounces of .999 fine silver and was priced at $204.95 prior to their suspensions.
The one ounce 2011-W Uncirculated American Silver Eagle was priced at $45.95.
Check this site’s Silver Coin Price Guide for current sales figures and melt values for any of the above stated coins.
Wish we could have gotten at least one of the 2012 5-ouncers and some of the 2012 eagle proofs and uncs at the old lower price. Wonder if this is why the mint has been delaying their release dates?
I ordered the latest 5 ounce early this morning at about 5:30 am for the $204.95 price. Looks like I just made it in time.
Yet I see the the Army unc. one ounce is still going for the same price as the 2011 Eagle which they put on hold.
Wish the mint would clear these silver offerings a little by stopping production of 2011 5-oz Vicksburg and Chickasaw at current mint levels and move on to the 2012 versions just to keep interest up.
The commemorative Army silver coins are not 1 full ounce of silver so that is presumably why they excluded those from repricing….for now.
Why doesn’t the mint management just add the silver products to it’s metals pricing grid and let things happen automatically like it does with gold and platinum instead of going into crisis mode and stop sales every time there’s a bump or dip in silver prices? What do these people do all day anyway?
And as Bos said what’s the holdup in the schedule of release dates? I don’t think there’s any leadership at the mint at all. Ever since Moy left it’s been a knee JERK mentality with no evidence of any planning.
Jim; people who work for the US MINT sort of work for the govt, which by definition means they do very little actual “work” of any kind. Clearly it is badly organized and poorly managed like most govt agencies, but at least they have generous union benefits and a secure job for life, no matter how much they suck at their jobs.
There does not at all appear to be knee jerk reactions at the mint. The process has evolved slowly toward a more price and demand responsive system. I would very much like to see details of how the Mint sells bullion thru dealers. If I had to guess, the dealers will guarantee themselves a profit by telling the Mint a what price point they need to be at in order to protect themselves and assure a more than reasonable profit. They could be eliminated if the Mint wanted to take on the work to ensure their profit or at least… Read more »