Posts Tagged ‘mint’

Gold Coins: how important is it that is came in its original mint package?

gold spouse coin

Here are the new release mintage of the First Spouse $10 gold spouse coin, these numbers will change over time and I will publish new numbers. As you can see the coins are not selling as well as the mint thought. That should be a buying opportunity for collectors as the value of these coins with lower population numbers should go up faster.

First Spouse                                      UNC.                               Proof

gold coins first spouse

According to an article in the March 10, 2008 issue of Coin World, thousands of First Spouse Gold Coins have been melted. While this has implications about current demand for the series, it also has implications about the future of the series.

The coins were melted by SilverTowne, a coin dealer and private mint. According to the article, SilverTowne has melted between 5,000 and 7,000 Martha Washington and Louisa Adams coins, including both proof and uncirculated versions. An unspecified number of Thomas Jefferson’s Liberty coins were also melted. In addition, the firm has melted thousands of other recently issued gold commemoratives coins.

According to the president of SilverTowne, the coins were melted after his firm identified little or no retail demand.

I think it’s actually quite saddening that SilverTowne would choose to melt these coins. If they had offered them for sale at melt value prices, I think they would have readily found buyers to deplete their entire inventory. From the firm’s perspective this would have accomplished the same task of liquidating the inventory at the prevailing price of gold without destroying the coins.

As for the implications of the melt, in the short term it seems to indicate a lack of short term demand. In my opinion there is plenty of demand for the coins, as evidenced by the dozens that sell each day on eBay for prices well above the melt value. Perhaps there was just not the kind of bulk demand needed to quickly sell thousands of the coins.

As for the future implications of the melt, a single source has just removed almost 10% of the entire mintage. Mintage figures for these coins will be misleading future collectors, who may find the coins are more scarce than the mintages indicate.

Secondly, the early speculative demand of the series is probably at an end, but this might be a good thing. SilverTowne’s purchases of thousands of the coins no doubt helped fuel the demand. With them and other similar speculators out of the picture, future issues may end up with significantly lower mintages. Eventually there might be super low mintage coins like the Jackie Robinson Gold Commemorative which become worth far more than their weight in gold.

The First Spouse Gold Series is a marathon, not a sprint. It is currently scheduled to run for ten more years. While early speculation has dissolved, I am sure the future has many surprises left in store.

Original Article: http://firstspousegold.us/blog/thousands-of-first-spouse-gold-coins-melted/

First Spouse Gold Coins

First spouse gold coins

The United States is honoring our Nation’s first spouses by issuing one-half ounce $10 gold coins featuring their images, in the order that they served as first spouse.  The United States Mint issues First Spouse Gold Coins on the same schedule as the Presidential $1 Coins issued honoring the presidents.

The First Spouse Gold Coin obverse features portraits of the Nation’s first spouses, their names, the dates and order of their term as first spouse, the year of minting or issuance, “In God We Trust,” and “Liberty.”  Each coin has a unique reverse design featuring an image emblematic of that spouse’s life and work, as well as the inscriptions “The United States of America,” “E Pluribus Unum,” “$10,” “1/2 oz.” and “.9999 Fine Gold.”

When a president served without a first spouse, as did Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, a gold coin is issued bearing an obverse image emblematic of Liberty as depicted on a circulating coin of that era and a reverse image emblematic of themes of that president’s life.

2006-W SP70 Gold Eagle