US Mint Sales: Bullion Coins Hot, Grand Canyon Quarter Debuts Weaker

Make it a streak of two. United States Mint product sales improved for a second straight week.

Record gold prices, 30-year high silver prices, and the debuting of two new numismatic products certainly supported the numbers.

All but one U.S. Mint bullion coin shot higher. The exception was the half-ounce American Gold Eagle. It remained unchanged. Other fractional sizes joined in simultaneous advances on Wednesday, an occurrence that has become rare since their initial launch on June 10, 2010. With still one day left in September for sales, the one-ounce, quarter-ounce and tenth-ounce Gold Eagle have exactly doubled their August tallies.

And while American Silver Eagles crawled in their September start, the .999 fine silver coins have been fiery during the last two weeks. They topped 25.4 million for the year this week, and are on pace to easily break the all-time record of 28.7 million sold last year. Additionally, there is another glimmer of hope for uncirculated and proof 2010 Silver Eagles. The House on Wednesday passed the Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act of 2010, or H.R. 6162. The act would authorize the Mint to issue the collector eagles despite the unprecedented bullion demand. It is now up to the Senate to make it happen.

Added to the weekly sales tables are rolls and bags of Grand Canyon National Park Quarters. Their debuting numbers were a bit slower than prior America the Beautiful Quarter releases, as the following chart illustrates:

Buchanan’s Presidential $1 Coin & First Spouse Medal Set sales also appear for the first time. They came in at 2,080, which was 740 higher than the start of the Pierce Medal Set but 282 lower than Fillmore’s set.

Instead of highlighting collector coins and sets which managed week-over-week improvements, it is easier to focus on the few that slowed. First Spouse Gold Coins retreated as a group. 846 sold versus the prior 1,593. Additionally, two-roll sets of the Yosemite National Park Quarters were chopped by 5,460. The Mint does not indicate why such declinations appear from time to time, but they are usually associated with order cancellations, returns or accounting corrections.

The following tables show the latest coin sales figures as reported by the US Mint:

US Mint Collector Coin Sales

(Data compare previous to current Mint sales reports)

*NLA – No Longer Available.

The collector coin sales figures above have an "as of date" of September 26, 2010.