Ultra-High Relief Double Eagle Sales Begin Strong
The U.S. Mint released the first sales figures for the highly-anticipated Ultra-High Relief (UHR) Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle late this afternoon, and the numbers clearly reflect the fantastic popularity this coin is enjoying. The numbers are especially meaningful because they represent sales in a very bad economy.
As of 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, January 27, 2009, U.S. Mint sales of the 2009 UHR Double Eagle gold coin were 41,664 coins. This represents a whopping $49.5 million in revenue! During the first day of Ultra-High Relief sales alone, the Mint sold 28,173 UHR coins, at a total price of $33.5 million.
Like many other U.S. Mint customers who had ordered the UHR early, I received a notification today that my coin will be delayed several more days. My original ship date was Feb. 6, but the notice says it is due to be shipped on Feb. 11 now. A reader named Tom reported that his ship date had been changed from Feb. 6 to Feb. 20. I would imagine that this sort of order-delaying is just part of the process the Mint must go through to determine how quickly it can really process things (rather than representing some sort of striking or coin blank acquisition problem.)
Speaking of acquisition problems, remember all the trouble the Mint had getting coin blanks for the American Silver Eagles last year? It was quite embarrassing for the Mint; they took a lot of heat, not only in coin collecting circles, but in the mainstream press as well. Now that final sales figures have been posted for the 2008 Silver Eagle, perhaps the question shouldn't be, "how could the Mint have failed to get enough blanks" but instead, "how in the heck did they get so many?!"
The total sales figure for the generic bullion 2008 Silver Eagle is an astounding 19,583,500 one ounce coins! To put this in perspective, consider that this is double the 2007 sales of 9,887,000 coins. The previous high-water mark for annual Silver Eagle sales was the 10,475,500 sold in 2002. Many years have seen sales in the 4 to 5 million range.
If you think it might be easy to conclude that the Mint shouldn't have had any problem doubling its output, keep in mind that they competed with everyone else in the world who suddenly wanted to buy silver during those frenzied months that saw gold skyrocket to more than $1,000 an ounce, and silver to more than $20. Although the supply is recovering, and premiums are slowly falling, in the sort of economy we are circling the drain in right now, gold and silver are the traditional bulwarks against inflation.
Whether or not we see the sort of crazy demand for silver in 2009 that we saw in 2008, the U.S. Mint has taken meaningful steps to avoid another silver shortage of the type that so embarrassed them last year. Now that the numbers are out, though, people should be proud of what our Mint did for U.S. silver-buying citizens during this difficult time.
What do you think? Did the Mint take an unfair beating in 2008 over the Silver Eagle shortage, or do you still hold them accountable for failing to do what they should? Share your views in the comments section below.
Comments
If my experience was a typical one, then, they did not take an unfair beating.
I’ve had a subscription for automatic purchase of proof silver eagles for several years now, but in 2008, no delivery of my subscription, and no explanation, or even a notice that I might want to get one from a dealer. Nice.
Am I going to get one this year?
Who knows.
I did not complain to the mint as I know that would not make a silver eagle appear in my mailbox. I suspect the mint does not care about their reputation, or what I think of them because of this.
Last year I was thrilled to find out that the Mint had a subscription program, however it became quite annoying to have to wait months for the subscription coins.
Lesson learned. If you want to be sure to get your coins order them over the phone or the Internet the day they become available.
I am not too concerned about the Mint running out of blanks. As a matter of fact I was a little happy thinking that the 2008 coins would be more valuable in the future (until the totals came out).
Thank you Susan for all your great information.
Cath
The mint should work like all precious metal dealers. They should charge the price for the intrinsic value of the metal plus a surcharge for the cost of minting and distributing the coins. There should be no taxpayer cost. The program should be self-sustaining. If over the long run the coins produced increase in value, so be it but I don’t want to have my taxes pay for another persons hobby/business
I think the Mint messed up not because they could not secure enough blanks, but because they did not support their other products. If what you say is correct and they minted more than double the normal bullion coins, what excuse do they have for not minting enough Proof Silver eagles to supply demand? Surely they could have minted enough for their subscription orders?
Well with any business they surely knew they were going to sell a few of these eagles right? than why is it that the shipping date of feb 6th is pushed to the 20th, do they make these as each order is placed? It just seems to me that they were not ready to even put them up for sale, we ordered jan 22 no problem will give you 2 weeks before you ship them out, now lets go to 4 weeks why? If like you say they sold 40,000 of these well surely there not making the first batch now are they? And i see today its shut down orders for a price increase lol,I would just have thought with any good business they would be more prepared than it seems that they are. ; ]
No sense in bashing the mint. I don’t know what their problems are there. All i can say is, if this were a regular business, how long would they stay in business????
coiny
Perhaps the Mint could have avoided some of the rath if they would have made a comment regarding their production comparison figures between 2007 and 2008?
I think the mint should be commended for the way it has handled the astonishing demand for bullion products.
Regarding the UHR’s: Any well-run national mint SHOULD take orders for a strictly collectible-item, and THEN begin production. Why should the mint take heat for doing something so sensible? The ULRs are not for circulation, folks.
Regarding the howling “privatization” mantra:
Get over it. If a private company operated the U.S. Mint, orders would be taken before production (as they should be), but SO WOULD YOUR MONEY. And if you’re foolish enough to think that a privately operated mint would be “collector-friendly” you probably believe in Santa Claus, too.
If the mint were a private company, it’s CEO would be top-heavy with $$$-perks, and you would be paying for them. Also, EVERY purchase you made from a company that had a private contract to mint U.S. coins would include a 30% (OR HIGHER) profit just for the stockholders & executive officers.
Also, quality would be cut drastically, and called a “cost-saving” measure. And last, but NOT least, U.S. coinage would drastically lose it’s worldwide appeal. It would be about just as attractive (and expensive) as hologrammed coins from Tuluva, or some other miniscule “nation” that depends on stamps and coins for profits.
Get real, folks.
Well I’m glad I didn’t overboard on buying, given the “sales pitch” that because of low numbers these coins would be more valuable down the road. Another lesson in NEVER believe sale people – especially commissioned.
The biggest complaint I have with the Mint is the new pricing guidelines which charge too high a premium for all gold coins.
Their mandate is to provide coins at a reasonable premium over spot prices. These $250-$400 per oz. premiums just call into question the validity of the spot paper price.
The Comex says gold is $900 but the Mint won’t sell it to you for anywhere near that price any more.
# 8. Hi dana! You may be right about a top heavy $$$ CEO. Since all of us have a stake in the mint as it belongs to all of us. In my opinion for what it’s worth, a top heavy CEO would be cheaper than paying off the national debt., on the backs of tax payers, & coin collectors. So i can’t blame people for getting upset with the mint. They don’t have to answer to stock holders, they answer to the American public. The people that keep our mint in operation. Through pay roll taxes, or through the purchase of mint products. The HR saint is a bullion coin as far as i can tell, it may take two stikes to mint it. It’s still a bullion coin. I think people should be asking, and recieving answers as to how the mint justifies the mark up on this particular coin. I think we have a right to know.
coiny
The U.S. Mint, as a unit of the Deepartment of the Treasury knows exactly what it is doing! Many economists have proposed that there may even be some intended metals market manipulation (in the interest of the US consumer, of course.) The Mint will never take a loss on its descretionary products. Even the penny and nickel, now known to cost more than they are worth, will be bailed out by the Treasury and Federal Govt. (or else our entire system of money and banking would be compromised.) Thank you.
Purchased the coin on Jan 22. Initial ship date 02/06/09. Received an email a few days later to 02/11/09. Just received a third one for shipping on 02/18/09. Maybe they are still waiting to strike these coins!!!!
Many discussions about the shortage of silver last year lead me to believe I understood the problems with the Silver Eagles for 2008. Our club does a medal every year and we had problems procuring silver (especially when the price started dropping). But your explanation helped me to be even more understanding. That is an astounding change in the number of orders and anyone could be forgiven for failing to anticipate that kind of demand. But I am glad I didn’t buy a bunch of them — a spike in mintage like that is bound to create downward pressure on the price in the future.
I purchased my coin on Jan 22 at 12:45PM (EST), within the first hour of availability. Initial ship date 01/28/09. On 1/31/09 I received an email that shipping will now be on 02/06/09. On 2/02/09 they delayed shipping again to 2/17/09. On 02/03/09 I received an e-mail that shipping will now be delayed until 2/18/09. I’m starting to wonder what the actual shipping date may be?
My order was completed 1pm EST on Jan. 22nd. Original ship date was Feb. 6th., then the 11th, now the 18th. Anybody have an earlier ship date?
I just got an email saying that my order will be delayed until 3/6. Needless to say I think we all anticipate that our original prices will be honored.
I would just like to add another point of data to the mint’s “uncertainty database” with respect to shipping of the UHR Double Eagle coins. I managed to place my order just 21 minutes after sales began (by being very patient while pages took minutes to come up). Originally my Track Order page stated “in stock and reserved” and my original email confirmation related a ship date of 28JAN (which is what the mint site originally said). I have since received three backorder notices, slipping the date to 06FEB, 17FEB, and now 18FEB (as of yesterday). My Track Order page has changed at least 7 times, and has never been in sync with the emails, it currently states a ship date of 06FEB, but has shown dates ranging from the original “in stock and reserved” (which has shown up more than once) to 02FEB, 06FEB, 11FEB, 13FEB, 20FEB, 27FEB, and is now back to 06FEB. Clearly, as you have revealed, if the mint had 29000 coins ready when the coins went on sale, and I was one of the first few thousand to place an order (how many orders did they take in the first half-hour?), then all of the date shifting has to do with packing and shipping (perhaps a desire to include the book at time of shipment and not later, perhaps an issue with the wood case) and still honor their promise of first-in first-out. If they actually began shipping on 28FEB, and are honoring first-in/first-out, then they are only getting a few hundred coins shipped each day.
C.Hardesty ANA#R3135211
All I can say is whoever is in charge of ordering blanks for coin mintages should be fired. The mint promises you a shipping date then d.
rn states the shipping date is delayed.That’s no way to run a business…
Forget about the past!!! – What about 2009? What’s going on with the Siler Eagle Proofs and “W” Burnished Eagles? It would be a shame that the mint can’t keep up with a 23 year run and have nothing for 2009!!!
Ordered HR $20 on Jan 22. First shipping date of 2/06, then 2/20, and now 3/06. I guess we should start taking the mint’s 6 to 9 month warning seriously.
Ordered the UHR Double Eagle on the 22nd, today I received the 3rd delay notice pushing delivery to 3/18. I called the mint and asked them how many coins would be shipped on time. The answer I got was “maybe a few”, then I asked how many they make in a day, no direct answer, only that the mint was experiencing production delays. Hmmmmm???
I find it funny some of the comments…”that’s no way to run a business”.. lol uhh. It’s the government folks; not a business. What do you expect.
Those 2008 figures are impressive.