The US Mint’s published sales figures for the month of August show a stunning decline in the level of gold bullion sales. The monthly sales for their popular American Gold Eagle bullion coins measured just 41,500 ounces. This represents the lowest monthly total since June 2008, before the financial crisis took hold and led to a surge in bullion sales.
American Gold Eagle sales during August included 39,000 one ounce coins, 1,000 one-half ounce coins, 2,000 one-quarter ounce coins, and 15,000 one-tenth ounce coins to make up the total sales of 41,500 ounces. This represents a decline of more than 70% compared to the previous month and about 50% compared to the year ago period.
The US Mint’s other gold bullion offering, the 24 karat American Gold Buffalo also put in a lackluster month with sales of 15,500 of the one ounce coins. This is down from a monthly high of 70,500 ounces in May and the prior month total of 23,000 ounces. In the year ago period, the coins were not available.
Since the American Gold Eagle coins have been available continuously (amidst a few periodic suspensions), the monthly sales totals illustrate the pattern demand for the US Mint’s gold bullion coin. There have been a few other monthly drops over the course of the past few years and demand has always managed to recover.
Here are the monthly sales totals for American Gold Eagle bullion coins (in ounces) since June 2008.
Jun-08 | 15,500 |
Jul-08 | 50,000 |
Aug-08 | 86,000 |
Sep-08 | 113,000 |
Oct-08 | 121,500 |
Nov-08 | 116,500 |
Dec-08 | 176,000 |
Jan-09 | 92,000 |
Feb-09 | 113,500 |
Mar-09 | 136,500 |
Apr-09 | 147,500 |
May-09 | 65,000 |
Jun-09 | 116,000 |
Jul-09 | 86,000 |
Aug-09 | 82,000 |
Sep-09 | 115,500 |
Oct-09 | 115,500 |
Nov-09 | 124,000 |
Dec-09 | 231,500 |
Jan-10 | 85,000 |
Feb-10 | 84,000 |
Mar-10 | 102,000 |
Apr-10 | 60,500 |
May-10 | 190,000 |
Jun-10 | 151,500 |
Jul-10 | 152,000 |
Aug-10 | 41,500 |
I hope you realize that the main reason for the increase in sales during May/June/July was that the big Permanent Fund bought 320 monster boxes (160,000 coins) of one ounce gold eagles over that 3 month period. At today’s gold price they hold over $1 Billion dollars in one ounce gold coins in their fund. So it’s not so much that individual investors cut back, just that the Permanent Fund probably didn’t buy in August.
http://permanentportfoliofunds.com/pdfs/SemiAnnualRpt20100731.pdf
GOLD ASSETS—20.02% of Total Net Assets
350,519 Troy Oz. Gold bullion (a) . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 414,207,962
780,000 Coins One-ounce gold coins (a) . . . . . . . . . . . 946,457,850
Total Gold Assets (identified cost $1,019,538,176). . . . .$1,360,665,812