http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=gold&months=12&commodity=gold I was interested to see why this might be the case. I decided to look up last years gold prices compared to this years to see if that had any factor on this slump you mentioned, but the prices are the same. I wonder why people aren't buying the American Gold Eagle or silver bullion? Great point!
People such as myself buy various bullion coins because we like the design variety. Silver and gold eagles have a decent production quality, but having the same design every year is boooooooooorrrrriiiinnnnnnggggggg. I don't know how much this impacts the sales numbers for most people, but I know it does for me.
Yeap, if you look total bullion sales in US excluding US mint the overall number are probably at their highs. Demand for Perth and Chinese mint products are sky rocketing (in fact Mint of PRC is expanding its presence in US significantly). Ironically i could find Eagles no longer even that popular any more in Asia (quite popular in 90s).