Except for palladium, precious metals saw modest declines on Wednesday, ranging from 0.1% for gold, which hit a fresh three-week low, to 0.9% for silver. Palladium scored a decent 1.2% gain.
Gold for December delivery shed $2.60 to end at $1,932.50 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement was the lowest since Aug. 22 when gold ended at $1,926 an ounce.
"Although prices showed little reaction to a major U.S. inflation report that contained no big surprises, the data did fall into the camp of the U.S. monetary policy hawks. That’s a negative for the metals markets," Jim Wyckoff, a senior analyst at Kitco Inc, said in a daily research note.
Earlier on Wednesday, the U.S. Labor Department reported that consumer prices had risen by 0.6% last month, up from 0.2% in July. This marked the highest monthly rate since June 2022, while annual inflation accelerated to 3.7% from the previous 3.2%.
On the day, gold futures traded between $1,927.20 and $1,938.40, after falling by 0.6% on Tuesday and climbing by 0.2% on Monday.
Elsewhere, silver for December delivery gave back 22.1 cents, closing at a price of $23.181 an ounce. Silver futures ranged from $23.02 and $23.39. They edged up by 0.08% on Tuesday and they rose by 0.9% on Monday.
In PGM futures on Wednesday:
-
October platinum declined by $7.60, or 0.8%, to $905.20 an ounce, trading between $898.10 and $914.70.
- Palladium for December delivery advanced by $15.50 to $1,260.80 an ounce, ranging from $1,229 to $1,267.50.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
On Wednesday, and for the first time this week, published U.S. Mint bullion sales changed, with increases of 20,500 ounces in American Gold Eagles, 1,500 ounces in American Gold Buffalos, and 785,000 ounces in American Silver Eagles.
The table below presents a breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products sold, with columns indicating the number of coins sold (not total ounces) during different time periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday / This Week | Last Week | July | August | September | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 8,500 | 3,500 | 41,000 | 78,000 | 12,000 | 756,500 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 10,000 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 10,000 | 85,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 22,000 | 0 | 0 | 2,000 | 22,000 | 156,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 15,000 | 20,000 | 0 | 150,000 | 35,000 | 570,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 1,500 | 14,000 | 16,500 | 19,500 | 15,500 | 328,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 785,000 | 717,000 | 209,100,000 | 3,124,000 | 1,502,000 | 16,441,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12,700 |
Gold and silver deflate as other things inflate.
Doubt we will see the mint deflate their silver collector prices thou.
If silver drops to $21.00, I’ll go on a bullion buying spree- but nothing from the US Mint that’s for sure. Based on the Mint’s Pricing Range Table for Precious Metal Numismatic Products, it appears they do not consider silver to be a precious metal, as only gold, platinum and palladium products are listed in their table. So, I take that to mean the pricing for their silver products is fixed and will not get adjusted based on spot.
Major D,
You are absolutely correct; silver is not a component of the Mint’s precious metal pricing system. On the other hand, silver seems to otherwise be universally accepted as an authentic precious metal. It appears we may conclude it happens to be a precious metal whose prices the Mint couldn’t be bothered with keeping track of in the specific regard of how much they charge for the products made of this particular metal.
Major D,
Imagine if the Mint made a policy of pricing their numismatic gold, palladium and platinum coins marked up to the same multiples over spot as its silver ones. This would mean that the coins made of the three premium precious metals would sell for three to four times their spot price.
Kaiser, I can imagine the outcry already! LOL
Major D,
There would be gnashing of teeth and the lighting of torches!
Major D The $21 range might be a good point. I’ve collected for many years, off and on, since one grandmother gave me some Indian Head cents and the other one some “Mercury” dimes. What “goes around comes around”! One told me she used to get a $2.50 gold coin at/for Christmas. My dumb question, why didn’t you keep them? Her reply “needed it to live on”. So, why did I not buy them, back in the 50’s-60’s? There are wants and there are needs. Needs should always win. Today one of the the grandkids may ask me: “why did… Read more »
chuck, thanks for sharing that. I totally agree about grandmothers. Sometimes their wisdom may not become apparent until years later. What’s wonderful about coins is that sometimes the most valuable one today isn’t the one that cost the most back in the day. Take those Indian Heads and Mercurys- depending on year, mint and condition they could be worth more than the Morgans of the same period. Same with the Lincoln one cents. Every once in a while, I find a nice older wheat one, and sometimes an older Canadian one, mixed into a Loomis roll from the bank. The… Read more »
Major D and chuck,
Many thanks to you both for these heartwarming stories about your grandmothers and their connection with coins in general and our hobby in particular; those really resonated with me. My own grandmother would wait in line at the bank in Vienna to get me the latest commemorative silver 25 Schilling Coin whenever a new one came out and thanks to her I ended up with quite an extensive collection of those gorgeous coins.
That, chuck, is a bet you will never lose.
Excellent way to put it, chuck!
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of silver bullion coins and tens of thousands of gold bullion coins once again made their unseen journey from Mint vaults to private vaults, never to be viewed much less held by their new owners. And so it goes.
Switching the discussion to a clad set, the 2023 Proof set continues to fly off the shelf. 10.332 sales reported for the week ending September 10, and in the one day from Sept 12 to Sept 13 the available number was depleted by 2,515. Still 101,189 left, so not selling out for a while yet. But mintage still appears to be on track for the lowest proof set since 1954, so this is one I’m definitely keeping an eye on as to whether to buy a bunch before the end of the year.
that was meant to be a comma, not a decimal point: 10,332
The punctuation police have already forgiven you.
Or more correctly, they’ve torn up the typo ticket.
Thanks, Major D. This is a good point to keep in mind for that occasional scarcity buy.