US Mint Sales: Proof Platinum Eagle Improves Despite Higher Price

Throw out the debuting 2012 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set from the latest United States Mint weekly sales figures and there are only a few interesting items of note left.

Numismatic (and bullion) product sales are significantly slower in this round. Specifically, 29 U.S. Mint products improved over their prior weekly sales versus the 48 out-performers noted in the previous sales report. Two-dozen of the overachievers were lower priced products. In the $50+ category of mint offerings, only a handful of week-over-week gains were realized. Those included the 2011-W Proof Platinum Eagle and four First Spouse Gold Coins.

Collectors may have foreseen last week’s Platinum Eagle price hike and swooped in to buy before the $100 increase. Sales reached 12,920, advancing 449 versus the previous 371. The weekly amount was the highest for the 99.95% fine platinum coin since the first week in November when 454 were claimed. Around noon last Wednesday, the proof Platinum Eagle price was raised to $1,792.00.

Although four of the eight First Spouse Gold Coins registered better weekly sales, the entire series saw less interest with combined sales of 185 coins compared to the prior 229.

Opening demand for this year’s America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set retreated from previous years. Collectors ordered 50,744 against the debuts of 53,944 for last year’s set and 75,558 for the inaugural set of 2010. For a more detailed analysis of the series, read Wednesday’s CoinNews.net article on 2010-2012 ATB quarter proof set sales. This year’s issue did rank #1 in the weekly best-sellers list.

U.S. Mint Top Numismatic Products of the Week

1. 2012 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set (+50,774)
2. 2012 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set (+8,048 to 69,229)
3. 2011 Silver Proof Set (+3,084 to 547,314)*
4. 2011-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle (+3,062 to 241,302)
5. 2011 Proof Set (+1,952 to 1,058,377)
6. 2011-P Vicksburg 5 oz Silver Uncirculated Coin (+1,752 to 9,613)
7. 2011 Mint Set (+1,051 to 513,471)
8. 2011 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set (+818 to 136,904)
9. 2011 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set (+553 to 141,165)
10. 2011-P Olympic National Park 5 Oz. Silver Coin (+467 to 12,405)
11. 2011-W Proof Platinum Eagle (+449 to 12,920)

*The United States Mint did not report updated sales for the 2011 Silver Proof Set in the previous sales report. The 3,084 increase is actually two weeks’ worth of gains.

US Mint Sales: Bullion Coins

In United States Mint bullion coins, only the one ounce American Gold Eagle managed to match its previous weekly pick-up. Demand was significantly lower for the Mint’s remaining bullion products. The latest US Mint sales figures for bullion coins are available in the following tables:

*The as of date for US Mint sales of 1-ounce and under bullion coins is Wednesday, January 26, 2012. These totals are for this year alone. The as of date for the 5-ounce bullion coins remains more than one-week old with a date of Tuesday, January 17, 2012. These totals are for all the coins sold by design, and include sales from 2011.

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

US Mint Sales: Numismatic Products

*NLA – No Longer Available.

The collector coin sales figures above have an "as of date" of January 23, 2012. Visit the CoinNews.net page US Coins or the United States Mint website at http://www.usmint.gov/ for more information on any of the above products.