It appears the US Mint has halted Gold eagles again due to raising gold prices. This time its only the UNCs. So far this year, the UNC Gold eagles have been "not for sale" more often than they have been for sale. When its all said and done, I'll be curious to see this year's sale totals...See link. https://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/w...ctId=14066&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=13238
Plat proofs and UNCs are locked down also. Gold 1oz proofs sold limit so no big value there. Compared to this http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/american_eagles/index.cfm?action=sales&year=2007 sales are half of last year and on hold.And we thought 07 was going to be a bad year for eagles. To those who got some plats and some unc golds :thumb:
More on the mintage of the gold uncs http://mintnewsblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/updated-mintage-figures-for-2007.html
cccmachine, Just to clarify: the sales figure link you provided lists the numbers for the "Bullion" sales and not for the UNC W and the Proof coins. Items that are currently not available for sale are UNC AGE, Proof APE, and UNC W APE. The mint will sell these items again after adjusting the prices (higher)...
They will sell the items again, but there is definitely some sales time "lost". I believe they can continue to sell them into 2008, but cannot sell them once the 2008's have launched. I had acquired a 1/10th and 1/4 oz gold, and a 1/4 and 1/2 oz plat this year in unc, simply based on the price rising, and guessing it may be a low-purchase year because the price is so high. However, this year, with the sales stoppages, I don't know whether that will really translate to less sales. As the bullion prices approached the mint selling price, it could be that people were snapping them up like crazy. "ooh, look, only $xx over spot, I'm going to buy a bunch!" I believe the higher prices, both this year and next (assumingly) will push a lot of people away from the gold and platinum eagles, which I also believe makes them a better investment (as a collectible coin, not as bullion necessarily). $800, $900+? for a 1 oz gold eagle may mean a very short circulation compared to years when gold is riding at $400/oz. Platinums especially should have extremely low mintages. The UNC's have been produced in lower volumes than the proofs in recent years (recall 50-100k in the first few years, compared to 6-10k more recently?). So what does 2007 look like? If the trend continues toward lower mintage as platinum prices have risen, we might be looking at less than 5,000 1 oz platinum UNC's this year. Of course, there has never been the interest in platinum eagles that there is in gold, but my guess is someday, people are going to get interested in the Plat's. When/If that day ever comes, 5,000 (or even 10,000) of an issue is not going to stretch very far. I guess the summary to my long-winded post is, the higher the spot price of gold & platinum, the lower you can expect the mintage to be. Platinum goes back to $250/oz and the demand for UNC's will be much, much higher.
I don't understand why it's such a big deal that the US mint is holding the sale of Gold from it's website. You can buy gold cheaper from dealers. I don't get it. Do people enjoy paying more than they have to for this stuff? Call a reputable dealer at any time the mint has pricing online and ask them what they sell it for. You may be amazed....
I think the allure of buying directly from the mint is that the coins have not yet been seen by anyone. Even many reputable dealers will buy in large volume, select the best of the best for grading, and sell the rest, often for slightly less than what the price straight from the mint is.
