The following Q&A is excerpted from Clifford Mishler’s Coins: Questions & Answers: Q: Is collecting any type of coin a good investment? A: No! The hobby collector—be it of coins, back-scratchers, or Bavarian beer mugs—is occasionally persuaded to purchase by impulse or sentiment. Indulging frequent lapses into irrationality is part of the fun of maintaining a hobby. But the strictly … [Read More...]
Precious Metals Report: Bullion Sales Down Except for Roosevelt ATB
The U.S. Mint’s authorized purchasers (APs) bought 825,000 2016 American Eagle silver bullion coins last week, down from 1,420,000 pieces sold during the previous period.
One-ounce Silver Eagles have sold 33,350,000 pieces so far this year. We are currently 80% of the way through 2016, and sales for these issues are at 71% of last year’s total of 47 million ounces. To have a chance of approaching that total, Silver Eagle sales for 2016 would need to average around 1.24 million each week for the remaining 11 weeks of the year.
Gold’s value is down, just slightly, by $1.35 an ounce from this time last week. Gold is now appraised at $1,254.80, according to the London Bullion Market Association. The value of an ounce of silver decreased by $0.08 an ounce, to $17.40. (Sales report continued below.)
2016 American Eagle gold bullion coins have sold a total of 768,000 ounces across 1-ounce, 1/2-ounce, 1/4-ounce, and 1/10-ounce options. Last week saw 24,000 ounces of bullion Gold Eagles sold, down from 42,500 ounces sold the previous week. 2016 American Buffalo 1-ounce gold bullion coins have sold 163,000 pieces; 5,000 sales were recorded during this period. In 2015, the Mint sold 801,500 ounces of Gold Eagles and 220,500 ounces of Gold Buffalo bullion coins.
The sales total for the 2016 American Eagle one-ounce platinum bullion coins is 20,000 units. Platinum fell in value by $35.00 per ounce over the past week, bringing its current price to $932.00.
The sales figure for Theodore Roosevelt National Park 5-ounce silver bullion coins now registers at 32,100 units, an increase of on 1,100 since the U.S. Mint’s reporting of last week. Combined sales for 2016’s four 5-ounce bullion coins are at 248,400 units, for a total of 1,242,000 ounces of silver.
Combined production of 2016’s issues has officially surpassed the total for all of 2015, which wrapped up at 212,000 units. 2016 now has the second-largest annual mintage ever for 5 oz. America the Beautiful bullion coins behind 2011, which had the extremely high total of 465,100.
Bullion issues are sold by the U.S. Mint to a network of authorized buyers, who then make the coins available to the public. This year marks the 30th anniversary of American Eagle bullion coins, which were introduced in 1986.
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