US Mint Numismatic Sales Slide, Bullion Coins Lead

The amount of money coin collectors have been spending on numismatic coins has fallen since the middle of December, as a holding pattern is apparent by those who have already made their 2009-dated purchases and are awaiting the US Mint’s new offerings. The latest weekly sales report from the United States Mint is the least impressive in a very long time.

Only three collector products showed improvements over the prior week:

• Two First Spouse Gold Coins — the Anna Harrison proof gained 20 versus 17 and the Letitia Tyler proof advanced 21 compared to 16
• The 2009 DC & US Territories Quarters Proof Set rose 8,968. Last week the US Mint had cut their previous total down by 6,809.

In a bigger picture of faltering demand for gold products, only 240 First Spouse Gold Coins were purchased compared to the prior weekly grab of 733. The proof American Buffalo tally advanced another 421, but that is down greatly from the modest 749 increase reported last week. Tumbling bullion prices have not been beneficial to sales, but the US Mint did cut gold coin prices on Wednesday which should increase their appeal in the market.

New on the scene are the 2010 Native American $1 Coin. 25-coin rolls were released on Jan. 22. The first batch of figures show 8,333 rolls of the 2010-Ps and 8,446 rolls of the the 2010-Ds were purchased.

Worthy of a mention is the 2009 US Mint Set. The 700,000 milestone was breached, although sales are down nearly 40 percent from the prior week.

On the bullion front, the 2010-dated gold and silver eagles were released on Jan. 19. Buyers bought them in droves during the first few days. The excitement level has naturally retreated since, and again the aforementioned fall in precious metal prices must be considered by anyone buying them. 16,000 more Gold Eagles were purchased since last Wednesday. Silver Eagles jumped another 745,000, making their January record even higher. (See an earlier CoinNews.net article entitled US Mint Silver Eagle Sales Top 3 Million, Best Ever January.)

Major coin sales numbers follow:

US Mint Collector Coin Sales

(Data compare previous to current Mint sales reports)

*Sold out or no longer available.

Click here for an entire listing of the most recent US Mint sales report.

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

• First Spouse Gold Coin Sales Lag, Prices Cut – FirstSpouseCoins.us
  Sales slowed for seven of the ten available US First Spouse Gold Coins, according to the latest Mint sales data. In fact, the overall sales were the lowest for the month, sliding all the way to 240. Last week’s overall was 733. While the previous report showed triple digit increases for both Margaret Taylor coins, 320 for the Uncirculated and …

• 2010 American Silver Eagles Break Record – SilverCoinsToday.com
  Demand during the last several days has declined for all United States Mint silver products, according to the latest sales stats. Still, investors and collectors this month have given more than enough attention to the newly released bullion 2010 American Silver Eagle coins. January sales are at an all-time, record-smashing high …

The collector coin sales figures above have an "as of date" of Jan. 25, 2010. For an always updated reference of the latest articles, visit US Mint Sales.