Authorized Purchasers Order All 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins

Authorized Purchasers have taken all 165,000 of the 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins, the United States Mint reported Monday.

9 out of the 11 United States Mint AP’s placed their orders for the new 3-inch, 5-ounce silver strikes. The final batch of 23,000 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins™ which had not been sold as of last Monday are gone. They were pulled from the "cache" of the 2 Authorized Purchasers who chose not to participate in reselling the silver coins and allocated them to the 9 who will.

List of Authorized Purchasers Selling America the Beautiful Bullion Coins

As of this writing, none of the Authorized Purchasers have said they will begin accepting orders from the public before January 3, 2011. The 9 AP’s who will offer the .999 fine America the Beautiful Silver Coins include:

• A-Mark Precious Metals, Los Angeles, CA – www.amark.com
• American Precious Metals Exchange – Oklahoma City, OK – www.apmex.com
• Coins ‘N Things, Bridgewater, MA – atb.cntofma.com
• Dillon Gage Inc. Dallas, TX – www.dillongage.com
• FideliTrade Inc., Wilmington, DE – www.fidelitrade.com
• The Gold Center, Springfield, IL – (217)793-8002
• Jack Hunt Coin Broker, Buffalo, NY – www.jackhunt.com
• MTB, New York City, NY – www.mtbcoins.com
• Prudential Securities Inc., New York City, NY – (212)778-6667

The two Authorized Purchasers who chose not to offer the coins are Commerzbank and ScotiaMocatta. Both are headquartered outside of the United States. Their reasoning may have been governed, at least partially, by new US Mint terms and conditions which require AP’s to sell only to the "American public."

The nine who ordered indicated their acceptance of new terms placed on the sale of the coins. Those conditions were precipitated by events surrounding an initial planned release on December 6, 2010. The US Mint on that day received numerous inquiries about the silver bullion coins from the public and reports of pre-sale premiums that were more than double their current melt values.

As US Mint bullion coin products are struck as a means for investors to obtain small amounts of precious metals to add to their portfolios at near-market prices, the opening prices did not set well with US Mint officials. The initial release was delayed while US Mint officials determined a new course of action. That course was a modification of the bullion agreement between the United States Mint and its network of Authorized Purchasers.

Under the new agreement, purchasers who opted to order the new five ounce strikes agreed to resell them straight to the public and limit the premium charged on each coin sale to not more than ten percent above the price at which they obtained them, plus a reasonable shipping and handling fee. The purchasers pay the US Mint an amount equal to the London PM Fix price for silver on a designated day multiplied by the number of ounces they ordered, plus the Mint’s premium of $9.75 per five ounce coin which it charges to cover production and distribution costs.

In addition, the purchasers must enforce an order limit of one coin of each design per household. This latter requirement proved to be the most difficult for many purchasers to overcome as some of them had never sold US Mint bullion products directly to the public, but instead offered them in bulk quantities to other dealers.

The five 2010-dated strikes include the:

• Hot Springs Silver Bullion Coin (Arkansas)
• Yellowstone Silver Bullion Coin (Wyoming)
• Yosemite Silver Bullion Coin (California)
• Grand Canyon Silver Bullion Coin (Arizona)
• Mount Hood Silver Bullion Coin (Oregon)

Expected 2010 America the Beautiful Bullion Coin Prices

Based on the average London Fix for the week when most of the coins were ordered plus the purchasers maximum ten percent premium, buyers can expect the five ounce coins to sell for approximately $160-$170 per coin plus shipping and handling. Most of the 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins will be sold in a set of five, making set prices around $800-$850, plus shipping and handling.

The US Mint will offer numismatic 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Uncirculated Coins beginning in early 2011. These collector silver coins will feature the same designs but carry the "P" mintmark denoting their production in Philadelphia. The bullion versions are also minted in Philadelphia, but lack the mintmark.

All other factors aside, the very limited mintages of the bullion and uncirculated coins has added to their desirability. There is enormous pent-up demand for the pieces.