Precious metals snapped their five-session losing streak on Friday, slightly trimming their weekly losses which extended to three in a row for gold, silver, platinum and palladium.
Rebounding from a six-week low, gold for December delivery on Friday rose $13.30, or 0.8%, to settle at $1,722.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"A slightly weaker US dollar and U.S. short-term Treasury yields have given gold some relief recently. However, this has not changed the underlying downward trend in gold prices," Reuters quoted Capital.com analyst Piero Cingari.
Gold prices gave back 1.6% this week following losses of 0.7% last week and 2.9% in the week ending Aug. 19. On Thursday, the yellow metal ended at its worst point since July 20. Gold is 5.8% lower on the year to date.
In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:
"This week, a total of 17 market professionals took part in Kitco News’ Wall Street survey. Seven analysts, or 41%, said they were bullish on gold next week. Six analysts, or 35%, said they were bearish. Four analysts, or 24%, said they were neutral on the precious metal.
On the retail side, 898 respondents took part in online polls. A total of 337 voters, or 38%, called for gold to rise. Another 412, or 46%, predicted gold would fall. While the remaining 149 voters, or 17%, called for a sideways market."
Bouncing from a more than two-year low, silver for December delivery tacked on 21.5 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $17.881 an ounce.
Silver prices tumbled 4.6% this week after declines of 1.7% last week and 7.9% in the week ending Aug. 19. On Thursday, the precious metal posted its weakest finish since June 18, 2020. Silver prices are 23.4% lower on the year.
In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:
-
October platinum added $12.80, or 1.6%, to end at $818.30 an ounce, but logged a 4.3% weekly decline. The metal on Thursday registered its lowest close since June 25, 2020.
- Palladium for December delivery added $29.80, or 1.5%, to end at $2,026.10 an ounce, but finished the week 4.5% lower.
Both remained divided on the year so far with platinum down 15.3% and palladium up 6%.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2022
Published United States Mint bullion sales were unchanged on Friday. Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday / Sept. | Last Week | This Week | May | June | July | August | 2022 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 16,500 | 164,500 | 31,000 | 59,500 | 43,500 | 729,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7,000 | 6,000 | 5,000 | 1,000 | 72,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8,000 | 18,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 132,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 50,000 | 135,000 | 20,000 | 15,000 | 540,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 6,500 | 56,000 | 21,500 | 39,500 | 17,500 | 316,500 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 425,000 | 1,350,000 | 925,000 | 850,000 | 850,000 | 12,406,500 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23,500 | 15,500 | 1,000 | 80,000 |
It looks like Silver can’t dig itself out of the hole it’s currently in even on a good day.
I just knew there was a reason.
Speaking of gold, astrophysicists worldwide have in the last few decades come to at least a tentative conclusion that supernovas don’t produce enough gold to account for the quantity of that element existing in nature even though the minimum amount of it each one of those stellar events manages to produce is roughly equal to our Moon’s entire volume. Now the scientists are looking at neutron star (or neutron star with black hole) mergers as a way of making up for the currently unexplained discrepancy.
That’s far out!
In every aspect we can imagine, and likely some we can’t.
Very interesting Kaiser. I would like to read more about that. Do you have any favorite links that you like on that subject?
Honestly, East Coast Guru, I find a lot if not in fact most of my interesting and relevant reading by chance while searching for something else. I would of course love to be able to tell you exactly where to look for such and such, but I don’t keep records so I don’t have access to website details. However, you can never go wrong starting at https://www.space.com.
I don’t think, Major D, that in a universe which has billions upon billions more stars than there are grains of sand on the entire surface of the earth there is any way to know anything exactly. Considering how very little we know about our own infinitesimally small part of the whole picture – our planet, solar system and galaxy – this really isn’t all that surprising. The best that cosmology, astronomy, astrophysics, and astrochemistry together with all the other space sciences can offer is an admittedly ever-changing yet currently best available scenario.
Major D,
As my brilliant wife – who over the thirty years of our togetherness has demonstrated over and over again exactly how incredibly much more level-headed than me she is – says to me whenever I happen to spout some alleged “fantastic fact” about the universe, “But how do they know that?” With such a smart lady by my side you would think that at this point even I should know enough to take what she says to heart!
That’s a really good way to put it, Major D, and it makes me feel good that you could relate to what I meant and happy that you are experiencing the very same thing. We are very lucky men!
Thanks for posting the Greysheet link. Informative. I am leaning towards #1 as the reason people are selling. A softer market ahead before turning back up again.
Major D, thanks so very much for providing the link to that site!
The article itself was so very interesting and informative that I decided to expand on my reading by going to the author’s homepage for more of his monthly musings. I was then able to acquire even more significant enlightenment by viewing some fascinating coin-themed videos regarding subjects that his other articles had alluded to.
Does anyone have an Enrollment Page that isn’t showing TBD all up and down the line?
For example, my Anna May Wong AWQ 3 Roll Set Enrollment that should have the date of Oct. 25 on its product line indicates TBD instead, which would mean I’m not going to get it in spite of my having received the previously released ones this year already.
Sir Kaiser, it looks like the Mint’s (A Historic First:) American Women Quarters™ Program page is also showing TBD for many of the (Wong) products. On another note, the American Eagle 2022 One Ounce Palladium Reverse Proof Coin is no longer TBD and is rescheduled for a release date of September 29, 2022.
Thanks so much, Good Sir Rich, for letting yourself be heard from in regard to the aforementioned rather confusing situation. I’m trying to figure out exactly what this particular TBD is meant to indicate. “Truly Beyond Deciphering.” “Totally Bizarre Decisions.” Or perhaps the most plausible, “Too Bad, Dummies!”
I wonder if the announcement of the 2022 1-OZ. AE Palladium Reverse Proof Coin’s new release date is designed to balance out the above curious state of affairs.
Thanks for the back available notice, Major. With the 2022 American Liberty Silver Medal now showing data-available = 21,500 and sales total through September 4th at 53,134, final sales figure could ultimately reach the mintage limit of 75,000 thanks to this recent production dump.
This is another one of those “Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news” situations. The good news is clearly that the 2019 Apollo 11 Five Ounce Silver Proof is now selling for $201.50 (check/wire) or $209.43 (credit card) as opposed to the Mint’s original $229.95 list price. The perhaps rather less obvious bad news is that if one were to sell JM Bullion one of of these coins today they would pay you all of $145.95 for it, essentially establishing that as the fair going rate for the coin. In other words, if this coin… Read more »
Major D, many thanks for the much needed crash course in the ins and outs and various and assorted nuances of the secondary market, as up until now that has been anything but an area of expertise for me. Your explanation of why JM Bullion pays so little when making purchases from the public makes a lot of sense to me and I have no problem accepting the rationale behind that. However, what was definitely more surprising to me is the vast difference in retail pricing between JM Bullion and APMEX; I wonder how the latter is able to do… Read more »
Thanks once again, Major D, this time for your very useful, much expanded description of the apparently often somewhat complicated operations of the secondary coin market. It’s quite helpful to know, for example, that coin values are not etched in stone and as a result the retail prices throughout the market can range from marginally different to vastly separated. It’s clearly important to be aware that this is due to prices being determined subjectively as a consequence of each seller having their own individual factors that go into their value calculations. If I ever do venture into what for me… Read more »