Gold American Eagles - More Restrictions

In my last post, I discussed the good news of Gold American Eagle Fractional Gold Coins being available again. Well after a VERY short run, the U.S. Mint announced restrictions on availability of these and other U.S. gold coins.

After one day, the American Eagle Gold Tenth-Ounce Coin inventory was depleted and the other fractional eagles are in limited supply. Also production of the one-ounce Gold Eagles remain suspended until further notice (none have been produced in December as of yet).

The U.S. Mint also announced that sales of the popular American Buffalo one ounce gold coin have been suspended, with no new sales now planned until some time in 2010.

With this news, don't expect to see premiums (the amount charged over the spot price of gold) of these gold coins to go down anytime soon. Be sure to shop around to find the lowest premiums.

Gold American Eagle Fractional Coins Are Back

The U. S. Mint is again producing Gold American Eagles in half-ounce, quarter-ounce and tenth-ounce sizes. These fractional coins (so named because they are smaller than one ounce) have not been produced since October of 2008 due to a lack of required planchets (blanks).

So far in December (the first month production started again), 56,000 half-ounce gold eagles, 58,000 quarter-ounce eagles and 260,000 tenth-ounce gold eagles have been produced. With these coins available again plus Friday's drop in the spot gold price, you may want to consider investing in a few of these gold coins.

Before you invest, make sure you know the current spot price of gold. I can't give you specific advice on how high of premiums you can expect but you must shop around since premiums can vary by quite a bit. And remember the smaller the coin, the greater the premium. In other words, two quarter-ounce gold coins will cost you more than one half-ounce gold coin.