US Mint Sales: Low Mintage Coins in Focus

Sales of collectible gold coins rebounded in the latest weekly sales report for United States Mint numismatic products. Last week sales of gold coins had reached extremely low levels following the decline in the price of gold and an expected product price reduction which took place last Wednesday.

Sales of the closely watched 2009 Ultra High Relief Gold Coin added 1,887 in the latest week to bring the total to 110,681. These coins will only remain available from the United States Mint until December 31, 2009 at 3:00 PM, leaving collectors with less than two weeks to order. The 2009 Proof Gold Buffalo added 922 coins to bring the total to 41,553.

Debuting on this sales report is the Zachary and Margaret Taylor Coin and Medal Set, which went on sale December 17, 2009. The opening sales registered at 2,702.

An interesting trend emerging is the increase in sales for coins with confirmed or expected low final mintages. The best example of this is the 2009-P Northern Mariana Islands 1000-coin bags. These have outsold the 1000-coin bags from Denver by nearly two to one. The likely reason- earlier this month, the final mintage for the 2009-P NMI Quarter was shown to be the lowest for an individual quarter in several decades. Similarly, sales of the 2009 Lincoln Cent Presidency Two Roll Set are outpacing sales of the Professional Life Set by a wider margin than last week. The Presidency design is widely expected to have the lowest mintage of the four different designs released this year.

The table below presents the full report of US Mint sales figures. Total sales for each product are compiled as of December 20, 2009. The first number column represents the total sales to date. The second number column represents the change in sales since last week. The US Mint did not provide sales data for products with recently concluded sales.