US Mint Freezes Sales of Some Silver Coins, Announces Price Increases

October 3, 2012 by · Leave a Comment 

Prospective buyers on Wednesday were locked out from purchasing more than a dozen silver coins offered by the United States Mint.

2012-W American Silver Eagle Proof Coin

The 2012-W Proof American Silver Eagle was one of more than a dozen silver products that were suspended for re-pricing.

Since silver "has been trading in a range of $30.00-$35.00 per ounce since August 23, 2012," stated the Mint, it halted sales of its numismatic products containing American Silver Eagles or America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins so it could increase their prices.

Melt values have surged for silver coins in the last two months while U.S. Mint coin prices remained the same. On Wednesday, the price of silver in London was at $34.65 an ounce. In contrast, it started August at $27.87 an ounce.

The affected silver coins with their old and new prices are listed in the following table.

New US Mint Pricing for Numismatic Silver Coins
Product Old Price New Price
2012 Proof American Eagle Silver Coins $54.95 $59.95
2011-2012 Uncirculated American Eagle Silver Coins $45.95 $50.95
2012 Annual Uncirculated Dollar Coin Set $54.95 $59.95
2011 Gettysburg National Military Park Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins $204.95 $229.95
2011 Glacier National Park Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins
2011 Olympic National Park Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins
2011 Vicksburg National Military Park Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins
2011 Chickasaw National Recreation Area Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins
2012 El Yunque National Forest Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins
2012 Chaco Culture National Historic Park Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins
2012 Acadia National Park Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins
2012 Hawaii Volcanoes National Park Five Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coins

 

Sales were halted for the above silver coins by mid-afternoon on Wednesday (October 3), with their product pages simply stating: "This product is temporarily unavailable for product re-pricing." The U.S. Mint sent various news outlets the new coin prices, but it did not indicate when the sales suspensions would be lifted. It did note that no other products were impacted by the change, suggesting that its various silver sets would not see price increases at least in the short term.

Editor’s update: After one week of suspension, the silver products returned for sale at the higher prices on the morning of October 10, 2012.

The Making American History Coin and Currency Set, which contains an uncirculated American Silver Eagle from San Francisco, remains available for its original $72.95 price.

This is the second round of price adjustments for the proof Silver Eagle. Its sales were halted in July, returning $5 cheaper. That happened when silver dropped below $27 an ounce.

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