US Gold Mint: July 2010 Sees High Demand for the One Ounce Gold Eagles

The sale of US Gold Mint bullion coins continued at a high through July 2010. If considered individually, the demand for gold bullions saw a marked shift towards the one ounce coins. This tilt in demand seems to be the after-effect of the previous month’s initial popularity of fractional weight coins.

US Gold Mint: The Bullion Metal Options
July witnessed some new introductions in the US Gold Mint bullion collection:
Silver bullions: In the month of July, the US Gold Mint also offered the one ounce American Silver Eagle. This was the only silver bullion option. However, later in the year, a new five ounce series of silver bullion (whose design has been replicated from the National Park Quarters series) is expected to debut.

Gold bullions: The US Gold Mint offered the 22K American gold Eagle coins in different sizes:
• one ounce
• one-half ounce
• one-quarter ounce
• one-tenth ounce

The 24K American Gold Buffalo was brought out in just one size.
Platinum bullions: The US Gold Mint’s bullion lineup is yet to see the American Platinum Eagle. This coin has not been seen in the bullion format since 2008, but the US mint is all set to release it in August 2010. No price has been fixed on the coin as yet, although NumisMaster.com has speculated an approximately 30% mark-up from the present platinum price.
The following table summarizes the sales figures of the US Mint bullions till July 2010:

JULY 2010 BULLION COIN SALES

Coins July 2010 YTD 2010
American Gold Buffalo 1 oz 23, 000 183, 500
American Silver Eagle 1 oz 2, 981, 000 21, 149, 500
American Gold Eagle 1/10 oz 30, 000 310, 000
American Gold Eagle 1/4 oz 2, 000 46, 000
American Gold Eagle 1/2 oz 2, 000 33, 000
American Gold Eagle 1 oz 147, 500 766, 000

The overall gold bullion sales amounted to 175,000 ounces for the month July. Although this figure was 10,000 ounces lower than the previous month’s level, it was well above the 86,000oz sold during the same period last year. The sales mix shows a heavy inclination towards one ounce Gold Eagles. The rise in demand for the Gold eagles followed the heavy demand for fractional weight coins. For the month of July, the fractional weight gold coins accounted for 2.6% of the complete gold bullion sales, whereas in June, the same accounted for approximately 30% of the sales by weight.