2010 Proof Silver Eagle Orders Fixed

2010 Proof Silver Eagle orders are fixed. Acknowledging a mistake it made affecting a portion of its customers, the United States Mint confirmed Tuesday that all eagle orders were reinstated. This comes as reassuring news to those who had received erroneous emails last week.

A confirmation email was sent to those affected customers who had received the incorrect correspondence on Wednesday, November 10, 2010, first stating that their orders were on backorder followed up by a second email stating the item ordered had been sold out, thus canceling their purchase.

By the next day, the U.S. Mint was already contacted customers indicating they were working on the issue, and that the 2010 Proof Silver coin had not sold out.

Then on Tuesday, November 16, the Mint issued the following statement:

Dear United States Mint Customer,

This e-mail is a follow-up to the one you received last week which erroneously indicated that the United States Mint canceled your order for certain products. Since sending that e-mail, we determined that the erroneous e-mail was not due to a computer glitch. It was our fault, we take full responsibility for it, and we apologize again for any inconvenience and confusion that it may have caused.

The United States Mint took this issue very seriously. Our employees worked diligently throughout the weekend, and we are now confident that we have corrected the error by reinstating all affected orders. Additionally, we have taken measures to ensure that this type of error does not happen again. Accordingly, you will be seeing the normal flow of communications from the United States Mint associated with the fulfillment of your order.

United States Mint
Customer Service Center

The Proof Silver Eagle coin has always been extremely popular with collectors since they were first introduced back in 1986 along with their bullion counterparts. However, expectations surrounding the 2010 eagle are elevated due to the fact that the 2009 Proof Silver Eagle coin was canceled.

The Mint was driven into canceling the .999 fine silver coins by what it called "unprecedented demand" for the bullion Silver Eagles, which it is required by law to strike to meet demand. Unprecedented is an accurate term as the Mint sold a total of 28,766,500 during 2009, making it the best year ever for the strikes. In fact, 2009 beat out the previous record holder of 2008 by more than nine million.

2010 sales have been at even higher record levels, which kept the Mint from releasing the 2010 Proof Silver Eagle coin earlier in the year as it typically would have. It did not even announce that they would be available until October. The U.S. Mint was able to procure enough blank planchets from its suppliers to not only meet bullion demand, but to also produce the collector proof versions.

But, with such uncertainty surrounding the eagles as of late, it is of no wonder why customers would be apprehensive about their availability. Fortunately for the Mint, however, only about 100,000 orders were affected by the snafu, all of which belonged to members of the Mint’s subscription program. Under the program, Mint customers can sign up in advance to be billed and then have products automatically shipped when they are released.

The 2010 Silver Eagle Proof coin will go on sale Friday, November 19, 2010, at Noon (Eastern Time). The Mint is expecting high demand, as the following statement currently located on its online store states:

NOTICE: We anticipate unusually high demand for the American Eagle Silver Proof Coins, which the United States Mint will make available for sale on November 19, 2010, at noon ET. Because of the high number of customers that we expect to be placing orders during the first few hours of sales, you may experience delays when attempting to order online or through the call center during this period. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your patience.

The price for the silver coin is $45.95 per coin. A household order limit of 100 coins is in place.