U.S. Mint now suspends all one ounce gold coin sales due to shortage of physical gold!

Once again the U.S. mint has had to suspend sales of all its one-ounce gold coins, and some fractional ones too, as its supplies of physical gold cannot meet the demand.

LONDON - 

"The United States Mint has depleted its inventory of 2009 American Buffalo One Ounce Gold Bullion Coins. ... No additional inventory will be made available. As additional information becomes available regarding 2010-dated American Buffalo One Once Gold Bullion Coins, you will be notified."   So said a memorandum issued Friday to authorized purchasers of U.S. Mint gold coins and reported by Jim Sinclair..

Mineweb reported only two weeks ago, on November 25^th, the suspension of sales of American Gold Eagle coins by the Mint - U.S. Mint suspends American Eagle 1-ounce gold coin sales - again, which, at the time, reckoned such sales would be resumed early this month - but in the event, not only is the suspension of the Gold Eagle coin sales continuing, but also now the American Buffalo one ounce gold coin sales have also been suspended, with no new sales now planned until some time in 2010 - although the current sharp fall in the gold price may provide the Mint with a bit of respite from its supply/demand woes.

But supply problems also persist with smaller gold coins, particularly given the enormous demand for fractional sized gold coins following the suspension of the one ounce Gold Eagles. Thus the Mint was forced to issue a second memo on Friday saying "the American Eagle Gold Tenth-Ounce Coin inventory was depleted" and that "inventory for the half-ounce and quarter-ounce coins remains very limited." Following the sale of these remaining gold coins on Friday, the Mint anticipated that it would again offer all fractional sizes by mid-December, but in an allocation process.

On a more positive note for the Mint, the resumption of American Silver Eagle bullion sales will resume today. These silver coins were suspended along with the one ounce gold coins a week ago - also due to depletion.

The Mint had been trying to control sales by not releasing the 2009 coins for sale until late in the year - they are usually available throughout the year, but demand has proven to be enormous.  This doesn't mean though that coins are not available to the U.S. public as some authorized dealers will continue to hold stocks, although these are being depleted rapidly and premiums charged on sales are increasing.

According to a report on website Coinupdate.com "The US Mint began sales of fractional weight American Gold Eagle bullion coins on December 3, 2009.... These fractional Gold Eagles are typically available throughout the year, but this year the Mint delayed the release to focus production on the one ounce bullion coins. After only one day of availability, the US Mint recorded sales of 56,000 of the one-half ounce coins, 58,000 of the one-quarter ounce coins, and 260,000 of the one-tenth ounce coins. They have indicated that the inventory for one-tenth ounce coins has already been depleted and the inventory for one-half and one-quarter ounce coins is limited. The remaining limited inventory will be offered via the US Mint's standard allocation process and additional inventory is expected to be available in mid-December."

While the shortage of U.S. Mint offerings due to demand exceeding supply is, in reality, not that significant in terms of global gold sales it does demonstrate the extent to which demand for easily available physical gold has increased over the past two years.  Some of this has been the ever increasing interest by the U.S. public in gold in general and also a certain amount of distrust generated by some commentators as to whether the various ‘paper gold' offerings were secure.

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responses to this article

Gold Coin Suspension Your headline says "all gold coins" yet they still seem to be selling 2009 gold Buffalo proofs. A bit confusing. by Chuck on December 07 2009, 11:03 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Gold Agreed that the headline is incorrect. In addition to the Gold Buffalo Proofs which Chuck's rightly cited, the Mint is also still selling Braille Uncirculated Silver ounce coins. by StevO on December 07 2009, 14:13 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Gold/silver Yes they do have proofs or "collectable" coins. They do not have coins in bullion form that people want. Proofs ar 40% over spot....It's like saying if your'll willing to pay $2000/oz you can have all you want. Fact is they Ran out, and No longer . .more let you take delivery at COMEXX, they give you GLD paper. Funny, spot prices are down, and there is precious little to buy...hmmm. . .less by Partiot on December 07 2009, 16:02 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Just buy more gold The US mint could buy tons more gold with all their endless paper printing but they can't or they'll weaken the dollar. It goes to show how powerful gold really is. Or just use the gold stored in Fort Knox if there's any left, I'm gonna call their . .more bluff! . .less by Slopoke on December 07 2009, 16:33 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

coin shortage Slopoke, The shortage is gold 1 oz blanks for coin mintage. Coin blank producers have been working 24/7 trying to keep up with demand. by dasmith on December 07 2009, 18:20 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Illegal!! It is U.S. LAW!! that the mint should ALWAYS have bullion gold coins available ON DEMAND to the public, and that if they do not have sufficient gold to meet that demand, THEY ARE TO GO TO THE MARKET AND BUY THE GOLD AT WHATEVER PRICE NECESSARY TO . .more SUPPLY THE DEMAND. Anyone who thinks we are still a country that respects the Constitution OR the laws of the lands is sadly mistaken. We have become the USSA...a land of many and ever more laws, but laws which are only followed at the whim of the powers that be, who also exclude themselves from following them. We have become and are doing everything our Forefathers warned against and worked diligently to prevent us from becoming and doing...jt . .less by jt on December 07 2009, 22:58 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

supply chain I am not a mint insider, but from what I have learned, the bottleneck is the conversion of large bars into the precise shape and weight blanks (planchets in coining terminology) so all the "buying" in the free market won't help since it's a . .more mechanical limit of the machinery at their suppliers. Over the long term, they do need to develop more sources and higher capacity at their existing sources. . .less by Ron in Indianapolis on December 08 2009, 21:01 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Looks like a bubble to me,,,, by Piet on December 09 2009, 01:58 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Golds false sense of security When the governments back is against the wall, I feel that they will turn on the people holding gold and call it in and only paying a small percentage of its true value.They have done it in the past and they will do it again but this time, they will . .more also include gold coins from the past. . .less by Stan on December 09 2009, 14:58 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

gold i believe that US gold and silver coins have to be made with ore mined in the USA -- i dont think foreign bullion is used by bob on December 10 2009, 12:54 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Gold coins A lack of gold?? Is this really the problem answering why the US is short coins? World production 70 million oz in 2008? US produced 7 million oz. If the mint needed 1 million oz for coins would $1 billion dollars . .more cover the purchase? Would 1... 2...3 billion dollars really hurt the dollar? . .less by Jay Kaplan on December 27 2009, 09:43 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

. We bought a few of these american platinum eagles that we enjoyed your post. http://www.goldcoinsgain.com/american-platinum-eagle.html by buy american platinum eagle on January 19 2010, 20:43 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

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