Thanks for responding to my post with your informed comments. I just read your post just now. I researched the matter further 5 days ago & as a Perth Mint Australia (Gold Corp.) customer for the past two years & found out basically what you have stated & from my sources at Coin World newspaper since 1986. The Liberty Coin Act of 1985 signed into public law by President Reagan that started the silver & gold American Eagle bullion coin programs specifically stated that all silver & gold used for the bullion versions had to be mined in the USA. Somehow along the way since then the Mint has had to play around with its deep storage precious metals versus their working stock metals including when platinum bullion American Eagles were added by legislation starting in 1997. They purchase the 3 precious metals on the open market on a replacement basis. But, unless the original legislation provided a “small print” provision that would allow metals not mined in the USA to be used in extreme circumstances & I don’t think it did allow that at the time (I don’t have a copy in front of me & haven’t read the whole text of that law since 1985 when it passed Congress & was signed by Reagan, but it must have been changed or updated at some point). If true, it is highly ironic that the American Eagle silver, gold & platinum bullion coin versions may not be totally “American” (made of precious metals mined in the USA) as was both the U.S. Congress & President Reagan’s intent at the time he signed that public law. Anyway, it is the most popular coin program in U.S. Mint history as we all know! I don’t know if President Reagan would be upset that in this global interconnected economy as it is today we have to rely on other countries for some precious commodities or if he would be amazed & proud of how popular his Liberty Coin Act provisions has become. I do find it sad though that the U.S. Mint used to produce all of its blank planchets & now outsources most of them now. As the largest Mint in the world it should be able to do what the Perth Mint Australia does & be fully self-sufficient. But that would probably mean much higher coin prices!
Any thoughts or comments on this matter CoinNews readers?

-NumisDudeTX

The U.S. Mint has purchased bullion from Gold Corporation, which operates the Perth Mint. Replacement bars for West Point Mint’s working stock is ordered on the open market, with some of it having come from the Perth. Also, some planchets have come from Gold Corporation. There is a limited number of qualified vendors which does throw a wrench into things. If memory serves, Gold Corporation has been a source for platinum planchets and silver half-dollar planchets.

It is interesting that the U.S. Mint did not lower its silver coin prices one cent recently when silver was dropping so fast even below $14.00 a few days to a 6-Year low! But watch them raise silver coin prices soon due to silver finally going up a little in the last week or so after over a year of basically sliding down, down, down.
As far as most of their gold coins goes, they swear by the gold pricing grid published on their website, but as gold has finally moved up a good amount for first time in a long, long time in past week they suddenly list almost all of their gold coins as “unavailable” when I know they are sitting in the Mint’s Fulfilment Center on Shelby Drive in Memphis, Tennessee ! Why do they play the silver market without a pricing grid for silver coin products & why have a pricing grid for gold & platinum if they are not going to stick to it for fairness on both sides of the equation? But I know why. It would just be refreshing to hear why from the U.S. Mint officials in charge of the pricing structure.
By the way everyone, Bron Suchecki of the Perth Mint Australia government bullion coin program & ingot & refinery & blank planchet & precious metals expert known worldwide for his expertise in these matters stated in a recent Perth Mint online website posting that “The U.S. Mint is a customer of the Perth Mint Australia”. Very interesting statement! Ask U.S. Mint officials what is going on. I filed 2 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and will post the results (I don’t expect an answer since they will say it is “proprietary” classified information)!

-NumisDudeTX