Sales for the U.S. Mint’s new 2014-dated gold bullion coins were brisk on the first day of their release and through the first week.

United States Mint gold bullion coin sales opened the year strong

2014 American Buffalo gold coins and 2014 American Eagle gold coins launched on Jan. 2, which was the first day the United States Mint started accepting orders from its network of authorized dealers. Opening day gold bullion coin sales totaled 54,000 ounces, with splits of:

• 37,500 ounces of 2014 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins and
• 16,500 ounces of 2014 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins

This compares to last year’s opening-day coin sales of 58,000 ounces with 50,000 ounces in Gold Eagles and 8,000 ounces in Gold Buffalos. (Read further below for why these comparisons are not exactly fair.)

Flashing forward to the one-week mark, Jan. 9, gold bullion coin sales totaled 78,000 ounces with splits of:

• 54,500 ounces of 2014 American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins and
• 23,500 ounces of 2014 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins

These figures contrast against the one-week point for last year when coin sales totaled 86,500 ounces with splits of 72,000 ounces in Gold Eagles and 14,500 ounces in Gold Buffalos.

As other benchmarks for this year’s coins and their start, Gold Eagle sales through all of December totaled 56,000 ounces — the most since June, and Gold Buffalo sales hit 7,000 ounces for the month. Last year, 2013 American Eagle gold coin sales reached 856,500 ounces compared to 753,000 ounces in 2012 and 2013 American Buffalo gold coin sales reached 239,000 compared to 132,000 in 2012.

Sales starts of this year’s coins and last year’s coins are not an apple-to-apple comparison. This year the US Mint’s authorized dealers could order new coins without having to buy any of the older ones, unlike last year when they had to order more coins overall to get the desired amount of 2014-dated coins. To deplete its older inventory, the US Mint has normally required its authorized dealers to buy a certain quantity of old coins with new coins. This year the US Mint will keep its strategy in place, but hold it off until the 21st of January. A US Mint notice to coin news editors on Dec. 31, 2013 said the following:

"Authorized Purchasers were informed on Monday, December 30, 2013, that in an effort to help fulfill their customer orders for 2014-dated American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins, and in response to their input, the Mint will accept orders for 2014-dated one ounce and one-tenth ounce coins for two weeks. After that, we will mix the 2014 coins with 2013-dated coins on a one-for-one basis until the 2013 dated inventories are depleted.

Beginning on January 21, 2014, if there are remaining inventories of 2013-dated one ounce and one-tenth ounce gold bullion coins, they will be fulfilled on a one-for-one basis. For example, purchases of 5,000 one-ounce American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins made on or after January 21, 2014, will be fulfilled with 2500 (2013) dated one-ounce coins and 2500 (2014) one-ounce dated coins."

2013 American Eagle silver bullion coins sold out on Dec. 10, 2013. New 2014 Silver Eagles go on sale Jan. 13, 2014. Last year, 2013 Silver Eagle sales hit an all-time record of 42,675,000.