It’s nearly the end of February, and the United States Mint is still trying to push the remaining inventory of 2009-dated gold bullion coins out the door.
Sales of this year’s 2010 American Gold Eagles began on January 19, 2010. This was later than typical because the United States Mint made the decision to continue producing the 2009-dated coins into the end of the year. This in turn, delayed the start of production for the newly dated coins and the first available sales date.
When sales of the 2010 Gold Eagles finally began, the US Mint had a remaining inventory of 51,000 of the 2009 Gold Eagles.
Once the calendar turns over, most buyers prefer the newly dated coins. In order to make sure they could get rid of the left over inventory, the US Mint required authorized purchasers to take one 2009-dated coin for every three 2010-dated coins that they ordered.
Sales data indicates that the US Mint has probably now moved through about 40,000 of the old dated coins, leaving about 10,000 more to go. Rather than force feeding these bullion coins to authorized purchasers, the precious metals blanks could have served much better use making some of the canceled 2009 offerings that collectors were clamoring for.
For the past few weeks, precious metals have undergone significant, rapid declines. This follows a year of banner performance