First Spouse Gold Coins featuring Jacqueline Kennedy are selling quickly. First-day sales of the collector proof and uncirculated editions totaled to 10,894 coins, the United States Mint said on Friday. That tops sales of the last 12 coins combined, and those have been available for months.
Jacqueline Kennedy coins launched at noon EDT on Thursday, June 25, and opened at prices of $790 for the proof and $770 for the uncirculated. Expecting stronger demand, the U.S. Mint tripled mintages of the pair to 30,000 from the common 10,000 limit set on other recent issues.
Sales splits for the new $10 gold pieces total 7,102 for the proof and 3,792 for the uncirculated, representing percentage breakouts of 65.2% to 34.8%. Proof coins with their frosted sculpted foregrounds and mirror-like backgrounds always dominate their uncirculated counterparts. So that’s not unusual.
What was atypical was the proof edition getting placed on "Back Order" immediately on release, with an availability date of Aug. 1, 2015. That may have deterred some people from placing orders. We’re waiting to hear back from the Mint on this subject, and we’ll update this article when there’s more information.
Update: Adam Stump, deputy director of the U.S. Mint’s Office of Corporate Communications, provided the following statement about the coin’s "Back Order" status:
The Mint underestimated the initial demand for the 2015 First Spouse Series One-Half Ounce Gold Coins – Jacqueline Kennedy and, unfortunately, the products went on back order very quickly after sales started. As of this morning (June 30), additional product is arriving at our distribution center in Memphis that will clear a majority of the backorders. The Mint has resumed production and we expect to fulfill all customer demand in the coming days and weeks. We apologize to our customers for the delay.
As of 2:31 PM EDT on Friday, the proof has a back order date of Sept. 1, 2015. Some collectors have already received the uncirculated gold coin, a testament to what’s good about the Mint’s new ordering system. The uncirculated coin also now has a back order date of Sept. 1.
First Spouse Gold Coins are available directly from the United States Mint’s online store via this link.
Listed below are the latest sales figures for releases going back to 2012. Those with an asterisk (*) are no longer available.
| 2012 – 2015 First Spouse Gold Coin Sales | |
|---|---|
| Jacqueline Kennedy Proof (2015) | 7,102 |
| Jacqueline Kennedy Uncirculated (2015) | 3,792 |
| Mamie Eisenhower Proof (2015) | 1,896 |
| Mamie Eisenhower Uncirculated (2015) | 1,338 |
| Bess Truman Proof (2015) | 1,845 |
| Bess Truman Uncirculated (2015) | 1,320 |
| Eleanor Roosevelt Proof (2014)* | 2,377 |
| Eleanor Roosevelt Uncirculated (2014)* | 1,886 |
| Lou Hoover Proof (2014) | 2,167 |
| Lou Hoover Uncirculated (2014) | 1,595 |
| Grace Coolidge Proof (2014) | 2,372 |
| Grace Coolidge Uncirculated (2014) | 1,622 |
| Florence Harding Proof (2014) | 2,420 |
| Florence Harding Uncirculated (2014) | 1,630 |
| Edith Wilson Proof (2013) | 2,493 |
| Edith Wilson Uncirculated (2013) | 1,965 |
| Ellen Wilson Proof (2013) | 2,598 |
| Ellen Wilson Uncirculated (2013) | 1,960 |
| Helen Taft Proof (2013) | 2,632 |
| Helen Taft Uncirculated (2013) | 1,965 |
| Edith Roosevelt Proof (2013) | 2,890 |
| Edith Roosevelt Uncirculated (2013) | 2,075 |
| Ida McKinley Proof (2013) | 2,805 |
| Ida McKinley Uncirculated (2013) | 2,016 |
| Alice Paul Proof (2012)* | 3,505 |
| Alice Paul Uncirculated (2012)* | 2,798 |
| Frances Cleveland Proof (2012, 1st Term)* | 3,158 |
| Frances Cleveland Uncirculated (2012 1st Term)* | 2,454 |
| Caroline Harrison Proof (2012)* | 3,046 |
| Caroline Harrison Uncirculated (2012)* | 2,436 |
| Frances Cleveland Proof (2012, 2nd Term)* | 3,104 |
| Frances Cleveland Uncirculated (2012 2nd Term)* | 2,425 |
Article was Well done Mr. Michael Unser. Great research and nicely presented.
I could not help but notice way back when many were touting the Jackie Kennedy coin(s) of the future. Now it just started.
The series ends soon after the Nancy Reagan coin(s) – I believe. That will only be after Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Reagan to go. It has been a long expensive double series to follow.
Thank you for taking the time and giving your perspective(s).
Yes a long & expensive double series to collect. It appears that at most approx. 2,400 persons are all that were able to afford to collect the entire series. This, however, may be a good long term investment to those that are able to collect / complete the series.
Thank you, Mike, for your update.
This coin hopefully sells out in the week following or else it will follow a long line of busts by the US Mint (destruction of the 1st spouse line, destruction of the Plat eagle line, destruction of the ATB 5 Oz line…when will they learn it is better to keep the low mintage and guarantee a sellout instead of get greedy / stupid catering to the squeaky wheel complainers and miss out on 100 of millions of dollars in profits in addition to building a collector base who will keep coming back because of the good track record of value… Read more »
So far, only 1,320 set that you can get it and complete the first spouse gold coin series.
The economy has a lot of relevance toward low sales. The 1/2 OUNCE spouses were released 8 coins to 10 coins a year against the 1996 US Mint Commission study which said the American public can only handle 2 1/4 Commemoratives a year. Then when you add in: Too expensive Total dilution of collector demand Too ugly Production runs cut short on what they think demand is Mass melting of the first 6 coins because of gold price hike Blank problems Too hard to strike Political considerations You have the makings of a tremendous double series in MS & PF… Read more »
Why the color look different on (2007-2010) and ( 2011-2015)?
I mean the proof set
@Bettyclone
Looks like the Mint doesn’t really care about the color from year to year IMO …..I got the proof platinum from 2009 – 2014 and the first 3 or 4 years had great frosting on the devices the last 2 or 3 were shiny washed out with little frosting … it is so evident when you place them side by side and compare
I have only been buying the proofs since buying both are out of my budget. Not sure that it is a good investment, but I will have 20 ounces of gold at the end so the downside is limited, and maybe the series will become popular and have some upside. The bronze medals have actually done a little better, especially with the short sales of the 2014 set.
The mint claims that the Jackie Kennedy proof coin sold out in minutes, but this is not so. I was on the site at EXACTLY1200EDT and it was already indicating BACKORDER status. Somehow, dealers were able to order early.
I also have a chat session with the mint stating “millions of customers ordering at once” and that the inventory was gone after 1 second.
The US MINT reminds me of the US Post Office years ago when they were going “POSTAL.”
It’s still nice they can still AFFORD the gold, silver, and platinum they need because that’s what the INDIVIDUAL laws passed by congress demands them to do.
They are just a poorly run business with a grammar school intelligence and lack of common sense. But, on the GREAT side that affords (pun intended) the collectors to hit home runs because of their foolishness.
Let’s all be glad they get rid of class like Moy and Mercanti and have what they have now.
“millions of customers ordering at once”, yet 10,894 Jackie coins ordered. Guess the other 1,989,000 customers picked that particular time to order something else?!?!