US Mint Sales: 2011 Commemorative Coins Rally in Finish

The newest United States Mint sales figures show that 2011 commemorative coins enjoyed a mini-rally during their final days as did nearly every Presidential $1 coin product.

With those excluded, however, overall product sales remained a bit soft like they were this time last year. Both years the Mint has imposed Christmas shipping deadlines of December 12. That tends to drive selling volumes earlier in the month with resulting sluggishness right before the holiday.

Another type of deadline hit this year’s commemorative coins celebrating the U.S. Army and Medal of Honor. On Friday, December 16, the Mint stopped selling them after 5 PM ET to keep in line with mandates that permit their issuance only in calendar year 2011. Last week’s sales report had seven of the ten commemorative coins registering week-over-week gains. This week all of them outperformed. Three actually appear in the Mint’s top-ten selling list.

US Mint Top Ten Numismatic Products of the Week

1. 2011 Proof Set (+14,016 to 1,034,588)
2. 2011 Silver Proof Set (+6,735 to 532,878)
3. 2011 Mint Set (+6,575 to 501,409 – a new milestone)
4. 2011-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle (+3,975 to 222,229)
5. Medal of Honor Commemorative – Silver Proof (+3,580 to 112,850)
6. 2011 Presidential $1 Proof Set (+3,257 to 275,916)
7. 2011 ATB Quarters Proof Set (+2,325 to 135,526)
8. US Army Commemorative – Silver Proof (+1,871 to 119,829)
9. 2011 ATB Quarters Silver Proof Set (+1,443 to 132,255)
10. Medal of Honor Commemorative – Silver Uncirculated (+1,355 to 44,769)

This year’s commemorative coins will go down with strikingly low mintages, which is sure to increase their value long term. Neither of the gold proofs reached 18,000 and each of the gold uncirculated coins ended below 8,000. Each uncirculated silver dollar will end toward 43,000 with combined sales of 86,599. In contrast, last year’s sales count for the uncirculated commemoratives honoring the Boy Scouts and Disabled American Veterans combined to 182,859, or more than double this year’s issues. The 2011 proofs combined to 227,228 while last year’s coins reached 434,881 — not double, but near. The clad coins will go down as having the lowest sales of any recent commemorative.

Overall, 51 numismatic products offered by the United States Mint improved over their prior weekly sales versus the 33 out-performers noted in the previous sales report. Subtract out the commemorative coins and the remaining over-achievers were nearly all products containing a Presidential $1 coin. Lifting sales has been the amount of attention the coins have been receiving following the Treasury announcement last week of their production halt.

The latest US Mint sales figures for bullion and collector coins and sets are available in the following tables:

US Mint Sales: Bullion Coin Products

*The as of date for US Mint sales of 1-ounce and under bullion coins is Tuesday, December 20, 2011. For reference, 53,000 of the 2010-dated 1-ounce Gold Eagles remained for sale earlier this year and are included in the overall totals. The bullion sales figures also include 469,500 of the 2010-dated Silver Eagle bullion coins sold in January. The as of date for the 5-ounce bullion coins is Monday, December 19, 2011.

The following are the latest tallies for US Mint collector products:

US Mint Sales: Collector Products

*NLA – No Longer Available.

The collector coin sales figures above have an "as of date" of December 19, 2011. Visit the United States Mint website at http://www.usmint.gov/ for more information on any of the above products.