Now that the mint is making American Gold Buffalo's in all denominations should they eliminate the Gold Eagle program? Isn't it somewhat redundant to keep both? After all the Gold Eagle has always been somewhat of a stepchild in the bullion market for not being .999 gold and the American Buffalo is correcting that. Also with the Ultra High Relief Double Eagle coming out next year this seems to totally dilute the Gold Eagle's design.
IMO ignore all these sorts of items. Unless, of course, you know what's going to happen. Seems to me I just read where people who bought platinum items from the Mint at $2000+/oz are trying to return them for a refund now that they will be selling for about $1200/oz. The hedge against fluctuating bullion prices is to buy items whose main value is numismatic.
I agree with kanga Buy only the coin you want!! *** do get pulled in to buy any thing that will not keep its numismatic value.
Anybody who invests in precious metals in the form gold, silver, or platinum is taking a risk. Anybody who invests in the stock market is taking a risk. Anybody who invests in futures is taking a risk. Anybody who invests in numismatic items is taking a risk. Fortunes have been won and lost in all of these so called markets. Those folks that bought platinum from the mint at $2000+/oz took a chance and lost....now they want a refund? Try doing that with a stock broker.
When you are talking about post-1933 coins, gold is gold and no one coin is better than any other regardless of whether it is .900 or .999.
To get (back) on topic. Do you think that having the Gold Eagle and American Gold Buffalo is too much overlap? I'm not concerned about investing in bullion and I'm only interested from a numismatic perspective however the mint must look both ways. With so many coins produced each year it is (all but) impossible to buy an example of each coin. Several years back I always thought I would have an example of all coins since my birth year. That always seemed like an easy and cheap goal until about the mid 80's. Now I would need to win the lotto just to meet this "modest" goal.
That is a pretty extreme example. I think that the 1/4 oz buffalo is very cool in that it is the same size as the nickel, it is not imprudent to buy that.
Danr, there's a sucker born every minute and if I had that coin I'd sell it too. The Mint learned a long time ago that producing numerous designs every year each with relatively small mintages would attract a certain type of collector. Surely you aren't recommending the coin in the photo for someone seeking to BUY a gold coin, are you???? To me, it's just overpriced bullion.
Julien as we know all coins at some point were modern however I think your original question is going to be a yes, they will eliminate some denominations for next year, but it is only a guess.
sports collector/ African American history crossover and a tiny mintage. It is a pretty unusual numismatic piece.
yes, it is redundant. I would not be surprised that after December 31, 2008 the mint ends both the gold and silver eagle programs. I think the high relief Saint is the swan song and the Buffalo will be the only gold issued next year.
I consider it a made-for-collector coin and therefore basically a bullion coin with good US Mint marketing. Commems are fine, but many are insanely priced for what they are.
I'd have to check but I think the eagles are still outselling the buffalo. If that's true then maybe they should discontinue the Buffalo. The fact that the eagle isn't .999 fine doesn't seem to be causing a mass exodus from the gold eagle, so I don't think that is as big a deal as it's been made out to be.
Hey Cloudsweeper... I have always been of the opinion no matter what the fineness (.900, .925 .999) all denoms contain the stated (1 oz, .50 oz, .25 oz and .10 oz) of gold. Other metals like silver and copper are added to support since gold can be easily bent/reshaped. That is why you will see a coins mass to be graeter than the 1 oz mass for example. Please correct me if I am wrong? RickieB
An Act to authorize the minting of gold bullion coins. Be it in enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, Here is the Act put into place (signed) by Regan in 1985 Section 1. This Act may be cited as the “Gold Bullion Coin Act of 1985”. MINTING GOLD BULLION COINS Sec. 2.(a) Section 5112(a) of the title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraphs: “(7) A fifty dollar gold coin that is 32.7 millimeters in diameter, weighs 33.931 grams, and contains one troy ounce of fine gold. “(8) A twenty-five dollar gold coin that is 27.0 millimeters in diameter, weighs 16.996 grams, and contains one-half troy ounce of fine gold. “(9) A ten dollar gold coin that is 22.0 millimeters in diameter, weighs 8.483 grams, and contains one-fourth troy ounce of fine gold. “(10) A five dollar gold coin that is 16.5 millimeters in diameter, weighs 3.393 grams, and contains one-tenth troy ounce of fine gold. (B) Section 5112 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: “(1) Notwithstanding section 5111 (a)(1) of this title, the Secretary shall mint and issue the gold coins described in paragraphs (7), (8,) (9), and (10) of subsection (a) of this section, in quantities sufficient to meet public demand, and such gold coins shall “(a) have a design determined by the Secretary, except that the fifty dollar gold coin shall have – “(i) on the obverse side, a design symbolic of Liberty; and “(ii) on the reverse side, a design representing a FAMILY OF EAGLES, with the male carrying an olive branch and flying above a nest containing a female eagle and hatchlings; “(b) have inscriptions of the denomination, the weight of the fine gold content, the year of minting or issuance, and the words ‘Liberty’, ‘In God We Trust’, ‘United States of America’, and ‘E Pluribus Unum’, and "(c) have reeded edges. “(2)(A) The Secretary shall sell the coins minted under this subsection to the public at a price equal to the market value of the bullion at the time of sale, plus the cost of minting, marketing, and distributing such coins (including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and promotional and overhead expenses). “(b) The Secretary shall make bulk sales of the coins minted under this subsection at a reasonable discount. “(3) For purposes of section 5132(a)(1) of this title, all coins minted under this subsection shall be considered to be numismatic items”. (C) Section 5116(a) of title 31, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following: “(4) The Secretary shall acquire gold for the coins issued under section 5112(i) of this title by purchase of gold mined from natural deposits in the United States, or in a territory or possession of the United States, within one year after the month in which the ore from which it is derived was mined. The Secretary shall pay not more than the average world price for the gold. In the absence of available supplies of such gold at the average world price, the Secretary may use gold from reserves held by the United States to mint the coins issued under section 5112(i) of this title. The Secretary shall issue such regulations as may be necessary to carry out this paragraph”. (D) Section 5118(b) of title 31, United States Code, is amended – (1) in the first sentence, by striking out “or deliver”; and (2) in the second sentence, by inserting “(other than gold and silver coins)” before “that may be lawfully held”. (E) The third sentence of section 5132(a)(1) of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out “minted under section 5112(a) of this title” and inserting in lieu thereof “minted under paragraphs (1) through (6) of section 5112(a) of this title”. (F) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an amount equal to the amount by which the proceeds from the sale of the coins issued under section 5112(i) of title 31, United States Code, exceed the sum of – (1) the cost of minting, marketing, and distributing such coins, and (2) the value of gold certificates (not exceeding forty-two and two-ninths dollars a fine troy ounce) retired from the use of gold contained in such coins, shall be deposited in the general fund of the Treasury and shall be used for the sole purpose of reducing the national debt. (G) The Secretary shall take all actions necessary to ensure that the issuance of the coins minted under Section 5112(i) of title 31, United States Code, shall result in no net cost to the United States Government. PUBLIC LAW 99-185—DEC. 17, 1985 99 STAT. 1179 EFFECTIVE DATE Sec 3. This Act shall take effect on October 1, 1985 except that no coins may be issued or sold under section 5112(i) of title 31, United States Code, before October 1, 1986.
As long as the US Mint can crank out coins and actually turn a real profit on them, they should continue to manufacture and sell them. Frankly I prefer the AGEs over the Buffalo coins, they do not have to be blister packed, and can be stored in tubes etc.
As an American, I like more coins than less. Think about it, the mint says something like "here is a $1 coin that contains $8 worth of silver, and we're going to charge you $25" and we all say "I'll take 10!" It's a great revenue source in my eyes.They literally sell you something for more than it's worth and we all buy it in the hopes that its value will go up. I like being able to collect one specimen from each series, but I don't think that means we need 1 silver, 1 gold, and 1 platinum coin. Do we need to eliminate the first spouse series too? I mean, it's gold as well. We're talking eagle vs buffalo, but we actually produce several gold coins each year (eagles, buffalo, first spouse, commem). When you think about it, we're becoming a society as a whole that has multiple coins of the same denomination, even in circulation! We have 5 quarters each year (6 in 2009), 5 dollars, next year we'll have 4 pennies, we had 2 nickels only a couple years back, etc. We, as collectors, don't care so much about those because they are cheap to collect. The bullion market we worry about because it's expensive. For all those saying "I wish there was only 1 gold coin each year so I could collect one of each type" remember that there are many people out there who can't collect one coin of each type because there are ANY gold/platinum coins. I started collecting at age 12. The silver eagle was at the high end of my budget for a single coin! There will always be people who can't afford every coin (I know it for a fact, I'm one of them!) but I think it'd be wrong to deny the numismatic world the works of art that coins are, simply because some of us can't afford them.
