American Eagle Coins Update

Well, it appears the webmaster for the U.S. Mint is back on duty. That is, new totals have been posted for both Gold American Eagles and Silver American Eagles.

As of today, January 25th, a total of 85,000 one-ounce Gold American Eagles have been produced. The numbers for fractional Gold Eagles are still showing a big fat zero so who knows when that program will start up again. If you remember, December of 2009 was the only month the fractional Gold Eagles were minted for the entire year and they were small numbers at that.

The big news is Silver American Eagles which are showing 3,592,500 produced so far in January. This is a huge number which shows the pent-up demand for the "poor man's gold". At this rate, the number of Silver Eagles minted in 2010 will far surpass 2009's total of 28,766,500.

If you are an investor of Silver American Eagles, I hope you are shopping around for the best price. It is surprising the difference in premiums being charged by various dealers, both large and small. Just be careful out there and make sure you get the most metal for your money.

Gold American Eagles - A Slow Start For 2010

I have been checking the U.S. Mint's 2010 production numbers for Gold American Eagles (and Silver American Eagles also). New updates are scarce so the numbers below may be less than actual coins minted but it is all they have posted on their web site as of this date.

So far in January 2010 20,000 Gold American Eagles in the one-ounce size have been produced. None of the fractional Gold Eagles have been reported as being minted so far this year. Silver American Eagles for January are stated as 367,500.

After last year's late start on production of fractional Gold American Eagles, I would have thought there would be some production of them reported this late in January. Maybe they had a change of heart again and decided to just concentrate on the one-ounce size. Stay tuned for more U.S. Mint numbers as I get them.

Gold American Eagles - Year End Totals

Now that 2010 is upon us, I want to share with you the total Gold American Eagles minted in 2009. You may remember from my previous posts that NO fractional Gold Eagles were minted until December of 2009 so these numbers are small compared to the one-ounce coins.

A total of 1,315,500 one-ounce Gold Eagles were minted in 2009. Of the half-ounce Eagles, a total of 110,000 were minted (in December of 2009). Likewise, a total of 110,000 quarter-ounce Eagles were minted in 2009 and 270,000 tenth-ounce Eagles were minted in 2009. That makes a total of 1,425,000 ounces of gold used for the U.S. Mints' Gold Eagle program.

Unofficially, the spot price of gold was at $1096.50 per ounce at the end of 2009 which is a gain of $222.90 over the previous year's close which represents a 25.52 percent increase. Gold's high for the year was on December 3rd when the price per ounce reached $1,226.10.

On a related note, the "poor man's gold" (silver) had a banner year. A total of 28,766,500 Silver American Eagles were minted in 2009.

2010 should be a very interesting year for the precious metals.