US Coins

Order limits on Standing Liberty gold quarter lifted

Household ordering limits for the 2016-W Standing Liberty Centennial gold quarter dollar were lifted at noon ET Sept. 21.

Original images courtesy of U.S. Mint.

Collectors are able to order as many 2016-W Standing Liberty Centennial gold quarter dollars as they want, since noon ET Sept. 21.

The U.S. Mint lifted the household ordering restriction imposed Sept. 8 that limited buyers to ordering just one coin. The introductory price was $485, the same price charged now that the ordering limit is lifted.

The .9999 fine gold quarter-ounce coin is limited to a maximum mintage and release of 100,000 coins.

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Through Sept. 18, the Mint recorded sales of 54,876 coins of the maximum allotted.

Standing Liberty gold quarter dollar sales slow since first day

Only about 7,000 more of the Standing Liberty gold quarters have been sold since the first day of sales on Sept. 8, when 47,884 coins were recorded sold.

The pace of sales for the second coin in the U.S. Mint's 1916 Centennial gold coin program is in stark contrast to that for the first in the series, the Winged Liberty Head ("Mercury") gold dime. 

The gold Mercury dime, which had a mintage of 125,000, was listed as unavailable within an hour of its release. 

The household ordering limit for that coin was 10, leading to collector anger over a small number of customers being able to purchase in bulk.

OPINION: Is there a better way to sell a hot product like the 2016 gold dime?

The noise made by collectors after the Winged Liberty Head gold dime release may have contributed to the strict one-coin-per-customer limit initialy set on the Standing Liberty gold quarter dollar.

Next up: Walking Liberty gold half dollar

Though Standing Liberty gold quarters remain available for sale, the hobby has already started turning its attention to the third and final Centennial gold coin. 

Production has begun for the 2016-W Walking Liberty gold half dollar, and Coin World published exclusive images of the coin on Sept. 14.

Details are yet to be released on when the gold half dollars will go on sale, the numismatic product’s maximum mintage and whether there will be any household ordering limits.

But we do know some other important details. 

The 2016-W Walking Liberty gold half dollar is to be a half-ounce of pure gold and bears the Walking Liberty designs of sculptor Adolph A. Weinman, who also designed the Winged Liberty Head dime. The original Standing Liberty quarter dollar, first struck in December 1916, is the work of sculptor Hermon A. MacNeil.

On the gold half dollar, AU 24K 1/2 OZ. is inscribed on the rock ledge below the eagle's talons and above HALF DOLLAR. Weinman's designer's initials, AW intertwined, appear in the field to the right of the rock ledge, where they are positioned also on the silver issues first introduced with 1916-dated coins.

The W Mint mark of the West Point Mint is positioned on the obverse, in the field below the motto IN GOD WE TRUST.

The gold half dollar is 27 millimeters in diameter, the same as that for the half-ounce gold American Eagle, and is 2.2 millimeters thick. The coins are being struck on a coinage press with the dies oriented vertically. The obverse is the upper, hammer, die and the reverse is the lower, anvil, die. The coin blanks are being struck twice at 110 tons of pressure per strike. The edge is reeded, with 135 reeds.


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