US Mint Sales: Demand Jumps for Bullion Coins, Infantry Commemorative Products

In a rarity, demand climbed sharply for all 2012 Infantry Soldier Silver Dollar commemorative products during their second full week of availability, the latest U.S. Mint sales figures revealed.

New commemorative coins typically sprint out of the sales gate following their release and then begin to slow at a sustained rate. Infantry Silver Dollars were following that pattern until last week when buyers grabbed 36,685 as compared to the previous week’s 24,554.

And for a third straight sales report, Infantry commemorative products ranked first, second and third in the Mint’s best numismatic seller list.

U.S. Mint Top Numismatic Products of the Week

1. Proof Infantry Soldier Silver Dollars (+19,338 to 57,151)
2. Infantry Soldier Silver Dollar Defenders of Freedom Set (+9,356 to 32,762)
3. Uncirculated Infantry Soldier Silver Dollars (+7,991 to 26,001)
4. 2012 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set (+2,799 to 86,894)
5. 2012 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set (+1,956 to 69,494)
6. 2011 Proof Set (+1,342 to 1,066,566)
7. 2011 Silver Proof Set (+1,072 to 553,498)
8. 2011 America the Beautiful Quarters Proof Set (+626 to 144,599)
9. 2011 Mint Set (+621 to 517,791)
10. 2012 El Yunque Quarters Two-Roll Set (+490 to 19,284)

It would appear that the Infantry Soldier Silver Dollar Defenders of Freedom Sets are moving toward a sell out as 73.4% of the authorized 50,000 have been taken in just over two weeks.

Supporting Infantry commemorative products was a U.S. Mint mailed marketing brochure promoting them and the inability to order other silver-related coins. Volatile silver prices resulted in six silver coin suspensions on February 23. The coins were unavailable until yesterday when the Mint returned them at the same prices.

Aside from any factors, there is clearly a strong desire by many to own the Infantry Soldier Dollars. They are certainly selling quicker than last year’s commemoratives, and their performance bodes well for the newly released 2012 Star-Spangled Banner commemorative products which have received a good amount of national media attention these past two days.

In other stats, the unavailable silver products and recently raised coin prices proved a burden for overall U.S. Mint sales, as just 32 products outperformed their prior weekly sales versus the 45 noted in the previous sales report.

Additionally, each of the suspended silver coins — the 2011-W Uncirculated Silver Eagle and the five 2011 America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins — showed up with slightly lower sales totals this week, likely the result of customer returns.

US Mint Sales: Bullion Coins

Demand also increased for bullion coins during the first six days of the month. In the most notable categories:

• March sales of American Buffalo Gold bullion coins are at 7,000, matching the entire February total
• One ounce American Eagle Gold bullion coins have already reached 8,500 this month which is 43% of last month’s total
• American Silver Eagle bullion coins have marked seven-straight daily gains with sales this month near 700,000, or 47% of last month’s total

The following table offers the latest sales figures for U.S. Mint bullion products:

*The as of date for US Mint sales of 1-ounce and under bullion coins is Tuesday, March 6, 2012. These totals are for this year alone. (Check the US coin price guide for always updated sales figures.) The as of date for the 5-ounce bullion coins is Monday, February 27, 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 clad, gold and silver products:

US Mint Sales: Numismatic Products

*NLA – No Longer Available.

The collector coin sales figures above have an "as of date" of March 5, 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.