The United States Mint announced official sellouts of five collector products. The 2015 John F. Kennedy Coin & Chronicles Set wasn’t on the list but you’d expect it to get there with more than 96% ordered through a week ago Sunday. (See photos of the set.)
Another Kennedy product was, the dual-dated 1964-2014 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Coin.
Last year we stopped by the U.S. Mint at West Point to watch these coins getting made. I was impressed, and thought they’d sellout earlier and at a higher number. It was a lesson learned in trying to make such predictions. The latest weekly U.S. Mint sales report has its total at 73,772 coins. It’s not a low total by any means. It’s just not as high as many collectors expected.
Sold Out Products
The five U.S. Mint-announced sellouts and their sales through Sept. 27 include:
- 2014-W 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Coin – 73,772
- 2014-W American Eagle Platinum Proof Coin – 4,596
- 2014-P Everglades National Park Five Ounce Uncirculated Coin – 22,732
- 2014-W Florence Harding Gold Proof Coin – 2,372
- 2014-W Grace Coolidge Gold Proof Coin – 2,315
2014-W Proof Platinum Eagle Logs Mintage Low
Mintages continue to fall for the pricier proof American Platinum Eagles. Sales of last year’s coin at 4,596 marks the lowest for the size in collector proof quality. Two other proof Platinum Eagles in smaller sizes rank lower.
The .9995 fine platinum series was introduced in 1997. In addition to the 1 oz coin, fractional 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz and 1/10 oz coins were minted from 1997 to 2008. The 2008 proofs in the middle sizes of 1/2 oz and 1/4 oz are the scarcest with their mintages of 4,020 and 4,153.
1997 – 2014 Mintages of Proof American Platinum Eagle Coins
| 1 oz | 1/2 oz | 1/4 oz | 1/10 oz | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 20,851 | 15,431 | 18,628 | 36,993 |
| 1998 | 14,912 | 13,836 | 14,873 | 19,847 |
| 1999 | 12,363 | 11,103 | 13,507 | 19,133 |
| 2000 | 12,453 | 11,049 | 11,995 | 15,651 |
| 2001 | 8,969 | 8,254 | 8,847 | 12,174 |
| 2002 | 9,834 | 8,772 | 9,282 | 12,365 |
| 2003 | 8,246 | 7,131 | 7,044 | 9,534 |
| 2004 | 6,007 | 5,063 | 5,193 | 7,161 |
| 2005 | 6,602 | 5,942 | 6,592 | 8,104 |
| 2006 | 9,152 | 7,649 | 7,813 | 10,205 |
| 2007 | 8,363 | 25,519 | 6,017 | 8,176 |
| 2008 | 4,769 | 4,020 | 4,153 | 5,138 |
| 2009 | 7,945 | N/A | ||
| 2010 | 9,871 | |||
| 2011 | 14,790 | |||
| 2012 | 9,081 | |||
| 2013 | 5,745 | |||
| 2014 | 4,596 | |||
At least for now, the lowest mintage Platinum Eagles are the collector uncirculated versions. They were produced from 2006 to 2008 and in four sizes each year. All but the 1/10 oz size from 2007 have lower mintages than last year’s proof Platinum Eagle.
| 1 oz | 1/2 oz | 1/4 oz | 1/10 oz | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | 3,068 | 2,577 | 2,676 | 3,544 |
| 2007 | 4,177 | 3,635 | 3,690 | 5,556 |
| 2008 | 2,876 | 2,253 | 2,481 | 3,706 |
The 2014-W Proof Platinum Eagle features the last of the annually changing designs celebrating the core principles in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution. This design series kicked off in 2009. The U.S. Mint has not published on sale dates for the bullion or proof 2015 American Platinum Eagles. 2015 and 2016 proof designs are emblematic of the Mint’s two-year Torches of Freedom program.
This article was updated to include the latest sales figures through Sept. 27, 2015.
The first 2014-W 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Coin sold was to become infamous after first in line customer Nick Yadgarov bought it for $1,240 and then quickly resold it for $5,000 plus another like it replacement to David Hendrickson from SilverTowne and California dealer Kevin Lipton at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Rosemont, Illinois last year on August 5, 2014. That first gold coin was quickly graded PCGS PR70DCAM and then resold for an outrageous $100,000 to a deep pocket collector. Meanwhile outside the Denver Mint and Philadelphia Mint, hordes of buyers including many… Read more »
The U.S. Mint had dropped the price of the 2014-W 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Coin down to $1,090.00 on Wednesday July 29, 2015 when the London Fix price of gold had been low as $1,080.00 per troy oz. the previous week on July 24. 2015.
I was one of those duped buyers who thought the mintage limit will be low. Bought 5 of these at 1,240 and boy do I regret making this purchase. Now, this coin, ungraded, is sold on eBsy as low as $925. Now, I understand that gold went down, but what about the numismatic value? U.S. Mint has killed the rarity of this coin and possibly any chance of braking even in the near future.
On ebay on the low end an ungraded 2014-W 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Coin with its Original Government Packing, item # 111733577705 sold Buy It Now for $925.99 with free shipping on August 3, 2015 @ 09:04 AM by seller bagman48. Contrast this price to the high end when another ungraded 2014-W 50th Anniversary Kennedy Half-Dollar Gold Proof Coin with its Original Government Packing, ebay item #381352706825 sold Buy It Now for $1,325 with free shipping on September 3, 2015 @ 05:57 AM by seller simba-house. These two items had a price difference of $399.01 for identical coins.… Read more »
The max mintage for the platinum coin was 15,000. At 4,596 the mint quit selling way below the max. I wouldn’t call this a sell out but rather facing the fact that nobody wants to buy any more of these coins. Besides the mint needs to stop sales of the 2014 coin so that the 2015 coin will sell. Knowing that so few coins need to be minted the mint could easily set a new max limit at like 5,000, and sell only in the year they were minted, namely 2015.
I concur, Jim. The Mint needs to learn the lesson that repeat customers come to buy valuable products (ie low mintage (50K max on gold, 150K max on silver) and 1st come, 1st serve sales), not stuff that theit is begging us to buy 1 or 2 years after it was made.
More importantly, the mint needs to make sure its products are available for their defined periods. The sudden ‘sellout’ of the 2012 proof and silver proof sets are a great example of this. These are coins which do not have a set production limit and have always (read that as since 1968) been available during the current year (or a period of 12 months if released at some time other than the first of the year). There have been many examples of coins being ‘sold-out’ before their product or mintage limits were reached. While I don’t think that products should… Read more »
1968 Proof sets going off sale soon…..
Hi,
Have a question for Mike Unser:
Is there a way to find out how many returned orders the US MINT gets for a particular item? Maybe when they finally sell out? I am sure they keep track.
I am interested in only the 2014 Silver Kennedy set & the 2015 Kennedy Chronicles
Thanks.
I was extremely disappointed in the way the gold Kennedy was handled.
This should be right next to New Coke in the ranking of bad business decisions.
Well, what would you expect from a rudderless ship? The mint hasn’t had an official director since Jan 2011 and with these career bureaucrats like Peterson and Jeppson just hanging around with no vested interest in the direction or integrity of the mint screw-ups are likely to continue to happen.
Maybe with Boehner out of the picture at the end of October the Republican party will gain a more positive nickname “than the party of no”, Obama may once again propose a name for director of the mint and it’ll actually happen.