US Mint Suspends Collector Silver Eagles, ATB Coins and Set Products

Collectors looking to purchase many United States Mint products, including collectible Silver Eagles, America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins, and certain sets, will have to wait to place their orders.

The Mint suspended most of its numismatic silver products for possible price adjustments due to volatility in precious metals. This is not the first time that the Mint has halted product sales, but it does mark a change in the reason for their suspensions.

In the course of the last few months, the United States Mint had stopped selling products as precious metal prices continued to show strong gains in the marketplace. This brought the intrinsic value of the affected products too close to their actual listed prices, thus forcing the Mint to discontinue further sales until it could either raise product prices or wait for silver prices to stabilize.

In the last four trading days, the metal has realized significant declines, evidently forcing the Mint to consider actually cutting prices on several of its products. The precious metal had a London fixing of $40.25 an ounce just last Wednesday, September 21. That same London fix tumbled to $28.16 an ounce today, Monday, September 26.

The numbers equate to a 30% decrease in the cost. An even bigger decline can be seen if one considers that the white metal had surged over $43 an ounce in the first few days of the month. In fact, those high early September figures actually triggered suspensions of two silver sets. Days before, proof Silver Eagles were suspended in order to implement a price increase.

Now, with the reverse occurring, sales of the following United States Mint products have been suspended:

• 2011 Proof American Silver Eagles ($68.45)
• 2011 Uncirculated American Silver Eagles ($60.45)
• 2011 Silver Proof Set ($67.95)
• 2011 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set ($41.95)
• 2010 ATB Mount Hood Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin ($279.95)
• 2011 ATB Gettysburg Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin ($279.95)
• 2010 Silver Proof Set ($64.95)
• 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set ($39.95)

Potential customers visiting the Mint’s associated product pages for these items will find a note stating the products are "temporarily unavailable for product re-pricing."

It can be inferred that the products will be returned to availability once the Mint follows protocol for adjusting their prices (which typically includes the new price being published in the Federal Register), or when and if silver advances enough to bring the products back at their previous prices. Since several very popular products are suspended, the pricing process is likely to be streamlined, but the time could still stretch to several days.

Visit the Mint’s website at http://www.usmint.gov or this site’s silver coins information section for details on the above products.