Vicksburg 5 Ounce Silver Bullion Sales Slower

The United States Mint began sales the Vicksburg National Military Park 5 Ounce Silver Bullion Coins to authorized purchasers on June 20, 2011. So far, orders have been placed for only 19,000 coins, representing a significantly slower start than this year’s previous releases.

Rapid sales were experienced for the first two designs of the year featuring Gettysburg National Military Park and Glacier National Park. After going on sale April 25, 2011, a complete sell out of the 126,700 coins available for each design was announced on May 16.

The third design featuring Olympic National Park was made available to authorized purchasers on May 23, 2011. By the end of May, sales had reached 73,400 coins. The most recent available figures show sales have moved ahead only slightly to 80,700 out of the 126,700 available.

2011 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin Sales

Each of these coins are released under the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coin Program, which features the same designs as the circulating quarter dollar series. The coins are stuck in 5 troy ounces of .999 fine silver and have a diameter of 3 inches. As bullion coins, they are distributed in bulk quantities through a network of authorized purchasers, who resell the coins to other dealers and the public.

The first five designs of the series were released at the end of 2010 under unusual circumstances due to the unexpectedly low mintages of 33,000 each. The US Mint will strike this year’s designs in higher numbers with an initial quantity of 126,700 per design allocated.

For the year to date, sales of the 2011 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins have reached 353,100 coins, representing 1,765,500 troy ounces of silver. The more popular American Silver Eagle bullion coins have sold 22,303,500 troy ounces for the year to date, according to the latest available figures.