The United States Mint recently provided final mintages for the 2009 American Gold Eagle bullion coins. The mintage levels reflect the strong demand for physical gold, which has led to increased production over the past few years. The mintage for the one ounce Gold Eagle more than doubled from the prior year and is up an astounding 966% from 2007.
Throughout the year, the US Mint provides ongoing updates for bullion coins sales, however final mintages usually differ from these amounts since the US Mint may sell coins minted in multiple years. Monthly summaries of sales data are provided in Coin Update's precious metals sales reports.
The final mintages for each of the 2009 American Gold Eagle bullion coins are shown below.
| 2009 American Gold Eagle Mintages | |
| 1 oz. ($50 denomination) | 1,493,000 |
| 1/2 oz. ($25 denomination) | 110,000 |
| 1/4 oz. ($10 denomination) | 110,000 |
| 1/10 oz. ($5 denomination) | 270,000 |
The US Mint had offered the one ounce 2009 Gold Eagles throughout the year, with one suspension and several months subject to allocation. Sales of the 2009-dated one ounce coins had also continued into 2010, with a remaining inventory of 51,000 coins at the time 2010-dated coins went on sale. To help move out older dates, the US Mint required authorized purchasers to order coins on a 3-to-1 basis, meaning for every three 2010 Gold Eagles ordered, they would be required to order one 2009 Gold Eagle. The last of the 2009 Gold Eagles sold out in March 2010.
The fractional weight 2009 Gold Eagles were not available until December 3, 2009 and sold out by December 21. The production and release of these coins had been delayed for much of the year, as the US Mint focused their production efforts on the one ounce size coins.
The mintages for 2009 Gold Eagles are higher than last year's mintages, except for the smallest sized coin. The mintages for 2008 Gold Eagles were 710,000 (1 oz.), 61,000 (1/2 oz.), 70,000 (1/4 oz.), and 305,000 (1/10 oz.).
In 2007, the final mintages were at lower levels across the board, particularly for the one ounce coins. The 2007 Gold Eagles had mintages of 140,016 (1 oz.), 47,002 (1/2 oz.), 34,004 (1/4 oz.), and 190,010 (1/10 oz.).
Despite the higher levels achieved for 2009 Gold Eagles, none of the mintages break any records. The record high mintage for one ounce coins was reached in 1999 at 1,505,026. The record high mintage for one-tenth ounce coins was reached the same year with 2,750,338. The record highs for one-half ounce and one-quarter ounce coins both occurred for 1986 at 599,566 (one-half ounce) and 726,031 (one-quarter ounce).
