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Five-Ounce Silver National Parks Bullion Coins Continue to Sell Out
On September
29 the U.S. Mint announced that it had sold out of Bombay Hook National
Wildlife Refuge 5-ounce silver bullion coins to its network of Authorized
Purchasers. The Mint also said final
sales for this coin were 45,000 pieces, and that the final coin in this series
for 2015, the Saratoga National Historic Park coin, is expected to go on sale
on November 30.
The Bombay
Hook coin is being sold by dealers to retail customers on a pre-order basis,
and it has only been available for purchase from the Mint by the distributors
for a brief period.
Although
this is not the first time one of these coin has sold out during pre-order, and
several recent coins of this type have sold out of their entire allocation very
quickly, it does provide further indication that after six years, the series
has definitely caught on with buyers.
The latest
sell-out’s speed was probably partly related to the fact that retail premiums
on American Silver Eagles have soared to $6-7 and more per coin as a result of
recent shortages of American Silver Eagle silver planchets, which led the Mint
to temporarily restrict their sales on an allocation basis.
Buyers
quickly realized that the Bombay Hook coins are less expensive way to buy
silver bullion coins. In addition, the appealing
design features a great blue heron in the foreground and a great egret foraging
in a tidal salt marsh in the background.
This wildlife refuge is located in Delaware.
Hardcore
bullion stackers have generally shunned these coins in favor of American Silver
Eagles, but perhaps that is finally changing.
The other
version of the Bombay Hook coin, the one with a “P” mintmark made specifically
for collectors, will go on sale on October 8.
Mint buyers continue to be unhappy with the roughly 50% premium for this
version over the bullion coins.
Another interesting
development is that recent issues in this series, even those that do not have
especially low mintages, have been priced by dealers at substantially higher
prices than they were as recently as a couple of months ago.
Buyers
continue to grumble about this situation as well, and talk about price gouging
and the like, but it seems like it is a case of what price the market will
bear. If there were not people willing
to pay $120-30 for recent bullion issues, then prices would likely come down. Besides, if you purchase when they are first
available and shop around, you can still get them for $100 or less.
The Saratoga
release is not likely to be as quick a seller because many collectors indicated
they felt the rather basic design of two swords was better suited to the
quarter than the larger 5-oz. palette.
Next year’s
coins include one that depicts President Teddy Roosevelt on his horse in Roosevelt
National Park. TR is a hero to most
collectors, and this one will be very popular.
I personally
have always liked this series and am pleased it has gained more traction with
collectors.