The US Mint has once again suspended AGEs, AGBs, and First Spouse Coins. Gold US Army and MOH commemoratives continue on sale. This seems inconsistent to me. I'm not sure why they differentiate and keep the commemoratives on sale when all other gold products are suspended.
The commemorative don't have a price grid and they just had a price adjustment. With respect to gold commemoratives...
I believe the gold commemoratives are on a price grid now. So, it is odd that they weren't suspended. http://mintnewsblog.com/2011/08/more-us-mint-numismatic-pricing-updates/
There is a price grid for commemorative gold coins now. Here's the link: http://catalog.usmint.gov/wcsstore/ConsumerDirect/images/catalog/en_US/CommemGoldCoinGrid.pdf
I know they have plans to add them, but they haven't been added to the Gold Coin Grid, yet. In the link you posted it says... I believe "date of publication" is the date the change is published in the Federal Register. That may take a week or two...just a guess.
According to coin news, the pricing grid went to effect on August 22. http://www.coinnews.net/2011/08/26/us-mint-commemorative-gold-coin-price-guide/#PricingNotification
I think we both may be correct on this one. The Mint published their new price guide for gold commemorative coins on 22Aug2011, but it wasn't published in the Federal Register until 26Aug2011. I "believe" it has to be published in the Federal Register before it can go into effect. Of course, 22Aug vs. 26 Aug is a mute point for what we're talking about. In the thread "First Spouse Gold, Are They Bullion or Collectibles?", I posted a chart for the London Fix prices for last week and this (AM and PM). I also posted my understanding of how the price changes occur and why they may have suspended the First Spouse coins. I would repost it here, but I had a heck of a time with the chart and it changes format each time I touch it. I suspect the First Spouse coins were suspended and not the Commemoratives because they're priced from two (2) different pricing grids. An interesting point...the title of the Commemorative Gold price chart is... "PRICING OF NUMISMATIC COMMEMORATIVE PRODUCTS CONTAINING .2431 FTO GOLD COINS WITH SURCHARGE OF $35" If anything changes in the title, they have to come up with a new price chart and a new Federal Register publication.
I notice a differentiation in the description of how the coins are costed, and potentially what determines suspension. For gold numismatic coins (excluding commemorative coins): http://regulations.justia.com/view/131131/ For commemorative coins: http://regulations.justia.com/view/224350/ With the price of gold above $1880, if the mint is factoring in a margin of 15% for the AGE, AGB, and First Spouse coins, and only a surcharge of $35 for the commemoratives, I can see the 15% margin requirement causing suspension earlier for those coins. ...or maybe they just goofed.
Takes 'em a day or two to get to the commem's...... Goober workers ain't so quick, but you can be if you "act" now......
I "fixed" the chart problems and added the previous weeks info. In a typical week, once the Wed AM London Fix is publish (Kitco.com is a good source), you can compute the Thu AM to Wed AM average and what the new price tier will be. If a change occurs (up or down) the new prices go into effect that Thursday at 10 AM. If you see that a price change will occur, you can speed up or slow down your purchases to get the best price. As I mentioned earlier, at the top of the Mint's price chart, there's a list of seven (7) criteria the Mint uses when making price change decisions. I'm fairly certain those decision criteria are used each week after the Wed AM Fix is published. However, when prices vary wildly in a short period of time, the Mint always reserves the right to suspend sales. These past couple of weeks have been unique. From W/E 8/17 ($1763) to W/E 8/24 ($1855), First Spouse prices rose two (2) tiers in one week... Unc: From $1041 to $1091 Proof: From $1054 to $1104 The following week (W/E 8/31), prices dropped two (2) tiers...from $1855 to $1780. Unc: From $1091 back to $1041 Proof: From $1104 back to $1054 By Friday (9/2), prices were already back up two (2) tiers. The Mint probably feared a weekend run on Mint products at the lower prices and wanted to wait until Monday (or Tuesday) to decide what to do. I really don't know why the Mint suspended sales...but that's my guess.
I guess for the same reason any of the are important. I would wonder why the Wed PM Fix "isn't" important. The only thing I can think of is that the Mint needs time to make the price adjustments (the wheels of Government grind slowly) and they have to start right after the Wed AM Fix so they'll be ready by 10 AM the next day. I would think they could knock out any paperwork and updates to the website fairly quickly...but Charlie may be filling in for George, and Phyllis has that thing at school with her son, etc, etc...they probably just take the worst case scenario into account when making the schedule.
