Authorized purchasers compete for palladium Eagles

By Paul Gilkes

Published: Sep 25, 2017, 12 PM

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Starting Sept. 25, the U.S. Mint began selling its first American Eagle bullion coin struck in .9995 fine palladium to authorized purchasers.

Images courtesy of U.S. Mint.

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What may be mistaken on the obverse as a W Mint mark of the West Point Mint is actually the AW monogram of the designer of the Winged Liberty Head design, sculptor Adolph A. Weinman. The coins are struck at the Philadelphia Mint but, as traditional for U.S. Mint bullion coins, carry no Mint mark.

Images courtesy of United States Mint.

Authorized purchasers placed orders Sept. 25 with the U.S. Mint for 15,000 American Eagle 1-ounce palladium bullion coins, the nation’s first coin struck in the precious metal.

U.S. Mint officials declined to disclose how many of the 2017 American Eagle palladium bullion coins will be struck (all are being struck at the Philadelphia Mint) and made available for acquisition by the authorized purchasers. Officials said the Mint only reports sales for the coins, not total mintage levels for the current year’s bullion programs.

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The American Eagle .9995 fine palladium bullion coin, like all other American Eagle bullion coins, does not bear a Mint mark.

Mint officials said nine authorized purchasers expressed interest in purchasing quantities of the American Eagle palladium bullion coins, which are being offered on an allocation basis:

??A-Mark Precious Metals Inc.

??Dillon Gage Inc.

??American Precious Metals Exchange (APMEX)

??Fidelitrade Inc.

??CNT Inc.

??Manfra, Tordella & Brookes Inc. (MTB)

??Jack Hunt Coin Broker

??Scotia Mocatta

??Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB)

U.S. Mint welcomes a fourth metal to the American Eagle bullion program. Also in this week’s print issue of Coin World, we teach our readers about what a “weak-fatty” gold coin is and why you don’t want one in your collection.

Even before sales of the palladium American Eagles from the Mint opened, APMEX was already retailing examples online of Professional Coin Grading Service graded Mint State 70 First Strike coins for prices starting at $1,245 per coin, roughly $325 over the spot price.

The Mint does not sell its bullion coins to the public. Instead, it sells the bullion coins through a network of authorized purchasers who buy the bullion coins from the Mint based on the closing London PM spot price of the respective precious metal per troy ounce plus a premium. The authorized purchasers may then sell the coins to the public, other dealers and investors at a markup.

The premium for the American Eagle palladium bullion coin is the closing spot price plus 6.25 percent.

The authorizing legislation, Public Law 119-94, empowers the Treasury secretary to issue the American Eagle palladium bullion coin in quantities deemed sufficient to meet demand.

As mandated by the law, the obverse design of the palladium coin is an adaptation of sculptor Adolph A. Weinman’s Winged Liberty Head design employed on the dime beginning in 1916. The mandated reverse design replicates Weinman’s eagle design from reverse of the American Institute of Architects gold medal first awarded in 1907.

In developing the coin, the United States Mint was able to use the original reverse plaster of the AIA gold medal.