Does anybody know when the mint stops minting 2010 silver eagles and starts minting the ones dated 2011? Does the change over happen on 1/1/2011 ... or is the date well after (or before) Jan 1st? I havent really noticed when the newly dated eagles become available for purchase in past years. If anyone remembers please post.
According to the information I found, production stopped on 11/19/10 http://mintnewsblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/us-mint-product-schedule-through-year.html coincides with the release date perhaps. I'm not certain. Here is another story: http://mintnewsblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/2010-proof-silver-eagles-at-707704.html Thats actually a very good question. They began production back in september, so ending production might be on the release date, since they have to gear up for the 1st quarter 2011 release's . Sound logical, but with the mint, nothing is ever logical.
I am replying concerning BULLION Eagles not the 'collector' (proof) versions: Minting typically begins the following year in the last quarter of the year as production ramps up for the year ahead and to meet demand by that time, for instance for 2010: US Mint 2010 Gold and Silver Eagle Bullion Coins on Sale Jan. 19 from CoinNews.net December 23 2009 Bullion dealers will begin promoting sales as soon as they know when the authorized purchasers or themselves if they are the authorized purchaser will be able to begin taking customer orders and delivering bullion eagles. Just watch their sites or sign up for product alerts if interested. During March 5th-8th 2010, APMEX was running a weekend bullion gold and silver eagle sale to clear out 2009 inventory and they included inventory of 2010 silver eagle coins in the sale. It's incredibly easy to figure these answers out, just search the numismatic blogs or Google for stories like this with sale announcements from the Mint / authorized purchasers: CoinNews.net, Coin Update, Mint News Blog, Numismaster, etc.
Typically the mint stops making the bullion coins in late Nov early Dec so they can get them all out of the pipeline before the end of the year. They start the next years coin early (Sometimes as early as August) so they will have a stockpile available for selling as soon after the start of the year as possible.
so, as I expected, they probably stopped production on the date of release which in this case was 11/19/10 makes perfect sense to me.
