Any reason for US Mints gold sales only 6,000 so far this month?

Discussion in 'Gold' started by Pirocco, Aug 13, 2013.

  1. Pirocco

    Pirocco Well-Known Member

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    2013/07/31 4,406,500 50,500 18,500
    2013/08/05 0 500 1,000
    2013/08/06 792,000 500 1,000
    2013/08/06 792,000 500 2,500
    2013/08/09 850,000 1000 3,000
    2013/08/13 1,596,000 1,500 4,500

    That's certainly remarkable. The silver to gold sales ratio so far is 266:1, a ratio that I never saw before, and it's not the silver side that is remarkably high, but the gold side that is remarkably low.
    Are they smarter than buying in a price uptrend?
     
  2. Sargeant Argent

    Sargeant Argent New Member

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    Dunno everything Ive read has pointed to strained physical but those numbers dobt add up. However maybe its just people wising up and not buying directly from the mibt or maybe its gokd buyers switching to silver due to higher upside. Unfortunately there is little sense to be made out of the pm markets ill after the fact hell even Bernanke doesnt understand gold prices.
     
  3. Pirocco

    Pirocco Well-Known Member

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    US Mint only sells bullion to primary dealers, so people (in the sense of stackers then) can't even buy gold coins directly from the Mint.
    I learnt one thing: that everything remarkable has specific reason(s). Hence I brought this very remarkable gold/silver coin sales ratio up.
    With all the experience sitting on this forum, and me with my two years experience and only 1 year monitoring US Mint sales day to day, I'm sure some here can think of an explanation for these remarkable sales figures discrepancy.
    Take into account: such weird high or low coin sales could simply be due to US Mint decisions / planning on coin production. We have seen sales suspensions end last year, which seems to have become a common phenomenon in recent years (with higher january sales as a consequence). This could be a reason for sudden big drop in gold coin sales (more specifically: Gold Eagles, since the Gold Buffalo sales numbers are 'normal'. So a quite plausible explanation could be a temporary suspension of Gold Eagles. But they should report that, or not?
     
  4. Pirocco

    Pirocco Well-Known Member

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    6 days further. Still only 2,500 gold eagles. Are they on vacation or so lol?
    If this rate continues it will be the lowest sales month in... eh... US Mints history, lol?
     
  5. worldbubble

    worldbubble Active Member

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    may be it is kilo coins? :lol:
     
  6. DanielM

    DanielM Active Member Silver Stacker

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    No money no honey
     
  7. Pirocco

    Pirocco Well-Known Member

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    If I would wishful think the reason should be stackers that suspended their purchases until the money for nothing clubbers got out again.
     
  8. TreasureHunter

    TreasureHunter Well-Known Member

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    Kilo coins are a great buy at the moment - I'm referring to silver, of course...

    By the way, I don't know why they're not calling them "discs" instead of "coins"... they're rather discs to me! :D
     
  9. Pirocco

    Pirocco Well-Known Member

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    That's reserved for the 10 kilo lunars and the 5 kilo noahs ark
     
  10. leo25

    leo25 Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    WOW i just found out that US gold eagles are only 91.6% gold!! no wonder sales are shit, maybe the market woke up and realised it was a rip off.

    Why would anyone buy a gold eagle when you can buy any other 99.9% gold coin for less? crazy!
     
  11. House

    House Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    It's still one Troy ounce you goose.


    The copper-silver alloy making up the remaining percentage is to increase its durability, it won't wear down as quick as a .999 gold coin. The best selling gold coin of all time, the Krugg, is the same.
     
  12. leo25

    leo25 Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    LOL my bad :D for now on i won't make posts 5 minutes after i wake up.
     
  13. worldbubble

    worldbubble Active Member

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    actually eagles are better buy as there're other metal that goes for free with 916 gold )))
     
  14. leo25

    leo25 Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    gold eagle do cost a bit more then most other gold coins, so looks like the cost is passed on and not free.
     
  15. Pirocco

    Pirocco Well-Known Member

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    Current situation is
    2013/08/24
    2,446,000 ASE
    7,000 AGE
    8,500 AGB
    So 2,446,000 oz silver and 15,500 oz gold.
    silver to gold sales ratio 158:1
     
  16. leo25

    leo25 Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    finally a reason why the gold sales "seems" low this month.

    So apparently for August the US mint are doing a special American Buffalo 1oz Gold Reverse Proof Coin, as shown on the US mint site http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wc...ctId=17144&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=10111

    So everyone is buying this coin instead of the normal coin. Once you add this to the monthly sales you now get 62,300 sales, which is a more normal number compared to just 21,500 for the Gold eagles and normal American Buffalo.

    This now gives a Gold to Silver sale of 58 to 1. The interesting thing to note is not only is there still strong demand for Gold sales in an up trend, but people are also happy to pay a higher premium!
     
  17. mmissinglink

    mmissinglink Active Member

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    The reason is, I believe, gold product prices are adjusted weekly by the US Mint, silver not. So silver products are still priced at when silver was just under or about $20/oz. It's seen as a better investment at this time. Gold product sales would probably have been much lower except for the fact that the special Buffalo Reverse proof coin is on sale for a very limited time. I strongly believe that not for this fact, gold product sales would have been considerable less during this spot price spike up and the weekly adjustment by the US Mint.
     
  18. doomsday surprise

    doomsday surprise Well-Known Member Silver Stacker

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    Maybe, you should just not believe anything the US mint says! It's part of the US govt and they don't exactly scream any sort of credibility.
     
  19. Pirocco

    Pirocco Well-Known Member

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    So that was the specific reason. Nice to see this confirmed.
    I never thought that a 'special' / numismatic one could have sales figures comparable to bullion.
    That means that I can't ignore this in the gold/silver coin demand.
    A pity that the US Mint doesn't give a total amount gold/silver sold, like the Perth Mint. Or do they, somewhere?
     

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