This short article presents photos of the 2015-W $100 American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin and offers early sales comparisons against other modern U.S. gold coins.
Demand was in full swing. The United States Mint’s first-ever $100 gold coin leapt out of the sales gate on Thursday, July 30, with over 35,000 of the maximum 50,000 sold within the first four hours. Some buyers had their new coin in hand in less than 24 hours.
Sales raced hot until a barricade appeared, throwing some cold water on prospective buyers. At about 3:20 p.m. Eastern Time, the U.S. Mint suspended ordering for several hours, listing the gold piece as unavailable. That lasted until around 6:40 p.m., when the coin returned but in backorder with an expected in-stock date of Oct. 1.
The Mint tends to beat those early published stocking dates, but the very nature of back-ordering with long expected wait times is discouraging for some. Based on the latest sales total, it may have already dashed some sales. The U.S. Mint is now reporting a first-day total of 36,686 coins, or 73.3% of the maximum. That’s an increase of less than 2,000 from those very early hours.
Despite the later hurdles, the coin has already made some history. Its sales stand well atop other starts of unique and modern one-ounce, .9999 fine gold coins. That includes:
- the 2013-W $50 Reverse Proof American Buffalo Gold Coin with sales of 21,009 in its first 27 hours, and
- the 2009 $20 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle Gold Coin with first-day sales of 28,173.
Pricing of the new 2015 $100 American Liberty is $1,490. It has a mintage limit of 50,000 and a household ordering limit of 50 coins.
As comparisons, the 2009 $20 UHR Double Eagle launched with a one-coin limit but cheaper $1,189 price. It ended with unaudited sales of 115,178. The 2013 $50 Reverse Proof Buffalo was more expensive, launching at $1,640. It lacked limits other than a four-week sales window and it ended with unaudited sales of 47,836.
There is also, of course, the more recent 2014-W $50 Proof 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Coin. It’s struck to .9999 fine purity but has less gold at 0.7500 troy ounces. The anniversary coin kicked off at a price of $1,240 and scored first-day sales of 56,694 coins. It’s now listed on the Mint’s website for $1,090, but unavailable, and it had sales of 73,218 as of last Sunday, July 26.
In ending, here are some larger photos of the coin, which include comparisons with proof and uncirculated 2015-dated American Gold Eagles.
The Mint’s product page for the coin is right here.
I received my UH8s Friday, 7 August, and they look pretty good to me; although they DO have chewed up rims (on the reverse) as described by others. Will that preclude these from an MS 70 by PCGS? It certainly does not by NGC. Anyway I must say my opinion of the coin is positive. Finally a LILF: a Liberty I’d Like To, well, you know. Let’s face it—Saint Gaudens’ Liberty is a DOG… IMHO, anyway.
I too have signifcant rim damage on the obverse and hairlines on the front – Humbug! The rim looks like it’s been scraped on a sidewalk from the S in STATE ot the F in OF plus numerous nicks here and there. I called the mint hours ago to return and replace and was under the impression they were going to send me a mailing lable. But as of now – nothing e-mailed or online in my account. What’s a guy to think?
I also have decided to return all of mine. I think the Mint will be getting a lot of returns. I’m finding more debris and hair inside the coin containers in many 5 oz ATB coins and also these gold coins. The rim defects are consistent with many people it seems and just ridiculous for what should be a extremely high-quality coin
Wow, all this hassle for a 1 oz gold coin with a $400 markup and the anorexic liberty. I’m glad I stayed away from this one. Maybe this is how they planned to cut the “collectable” mintage down to 30,000 or less…
This 2015 HR coin was my first gold coin. The obverse and reverse were ok but the rim looked as if the coin was in at an angle when it was stamped. It has high burrs on the obverse left side and the reverse left side. Right sides are rounded off on both sides.
Hey! Maybe the damaged rim will evolve into the next hot variety! Like the 1995 Lincoln Cent double die which requires an electron microscope to see the doubling. Get your marketing team on this baby, PCGS!
A question for Mike: is the amount of complaints about the quality of the coin higher than in previous issues? does the mint commit not to send returned / faulty coins to those who are next-in-line and are waiting to get their orders? I’m waiting for my coin, but tempted to cancel due to the descriptions here….
I called the mint, twice, and got what sounded, both times, like bored, could care less, ‘customer service representatives’ puttin’ in their hours. In a question that specifically asked the question, “would I get someone else’s return”, I was told, ‘No, your coin would be PROBABLY be destroyed’ and that I’d be sent a new one’.
My order was placed within 90 seconds of the opening. That, plus all the other complaints leaves me wondering about the details of this response.
My personal experience with cust. support for the Mint is that they know and can do little beyond the ordering process. They are, after all, a 3rd party contractor. The rep to which Mr. Hicks spoke knows nothing about the fate of returned coins. If the US Mint is truly customer centric, they will take heed of all the complaints regarding production flaws in the 2015 Gold HR Liberty, contact purchasers, and promise a properly struck exchange; however, they won’t.
Got mine back from NGC today at MS70. No rim problems. Ordered on the first day of offering.
Same here but with 2, first 10 min. Of sale. Congrats.
I was late to the game with ordering and just received the coin. I was disappointed with the numerous scratches on obverse and reverse. It looked as if someone had kept it in their pocket with their change. There was also some rim damage. I asked for a refund from USMint.gov. This was disappointing since I had been anticipating the arrival and I don’t make too many of these purchases. Not cool. First world problems.
I ordered and received this coin through the US Mint but when I inspected the tin casing (I removed the plastic/felt interior case) and found that the tin was rusting already. I was wondering if anyone else has even checked to see the condition of the tin underneath the coin.
That’s packaging, something the mint farms out probably to China. They probably ordered those things at least months in advance. Your coin is encased in plastic and stored next to the felt, not the tin – I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.
I too have a brand new high relief coin with lots of scratches on front and back. I could not believe all the complaints on this beautiful coin.
Well received 2nd 2015 American liberty high relief gold coin!!! I mean how excited can one be to get a 2nd chance at what I think is a Beautiful Coin! I took it out of the box and gave it a quick look and half blind it looked ok. Later on I looked at it with a 10x and found it to be almost as bad as the first,so I’m waiting on a return shipping label. If I don’t get it by tomorrow I will call again. For something high relief the coin has many scratches on it. Very disappointed… Read more »
I ordered on the first day and the rim on mine is nicked too. I did not see any scratches.
I could have returned it but they were sold out so I would have nothing. So better to at least have one of this type even if damaged, right?
Now I see they are selling again and just thought…. I wonder if they are selling all the damaged coins that were returned.
No Raymond, if you look at the weekly sales report you’ll see that the mint has struck more and releasing them in batches. If you wanted to swap out your coin with a fresh one, best to do that now
I had to get this coin seems it is available again and it’s the worst I have received so it was sent back today for a one more try at a good coin the coin I sent back had rim damage and many scratches with a huge scratch with lent and a little blob of who knows what on it ?!? If anyone gets a good coin please post it on this last bunch that they have just released 12/17 thanks and good luck.
How can we find out how many of the total release of 50K has been sold
How can we find out how many coins were sent back and what happened to them? Is it possible for the returned coins to have been reworked and sent back out or just sent back out? I sent a total of 3 back in to them and I’m sure many other people did the same! This has to be the worst ever in the history of the mint sending so many scratched coins out to the public. Don’t they have people watching for messed up coins? I would really like to find out what went wrong and why weren’t they… Read more »
On a related note, as it pertains to mint operation in general. Why are there so many TBD dates in the 2016 schedule? As we have talked about in the past, some of us have to budget to get the coins we want. I subscribe to most of the popular ones and most of those i.e.: Eagles, proof sets, limited edition and uncirculated sets are in TBD status. Is the mint director that bad that they can’t even offer a full schedule for the year and stick to it? I know the law was changed late last year to make… Read more »
The last several years the schedule has been full of TBDs. These temporary bureaucrats are just place holders for when a real director takes over so they don’t try to manage the mint, they’re just there to keep it running. I don’t think they have either the skill or the guts to make anything happen. The last time a full schedule (no or very few TBDs) was when the mint had it’s last director – Edwin Moy, who quit Jan 2011. I read that Obama’s thinking about putting Jeppson up for permanent director. Based on his performance so far, a… Read more »
I just purchased the 2015 American Liberty HR gold $100. from my local coin shop, NGC slabbed and graded MS69, early release. NO nicks, scratches or otherwise as you would expect from a direct mint issued or in this case, certified coin.
I like the smaller and thicker format as opposed to a standard bullion coin. Liberty
herself appears a bit frail, but the reverse eagle has bold detail which almost makes the coin by itself. And four nines doesn’t hurt either- What will come next- a $200.00 platinum eagle?
I doubt it; the platinum eagle is set at $100. It’s possible that they’ll come up with a new coin in platinum maybe as part of the liberty series and since the liberty gold has twice the value of a gold eagle the platinum liberty could be set at $200.
Doesn’t really matter since they sell at the going rate for the metal but who knows? As long as Jeppson is “in charge” anything can happen.
Any new news on HR gold coin? What a mess about finding Lint, hair, scratches and a blob of something unknown. I’m thinking about stop looking. I never seen anything like this with “Canadian coins” Come on USA MINT
I reviewed the reverse and found the same rim problems as described, a lot of hair line scratches in the obverse as well. In the end I submitted the coin to PCGS and received an MS70.
I have 2015 relief W but it doesn’t say 9999 fine gold on the backside,it it fake? Can I get anything four it?
Probably but what if it’s not? Have you found out?