Sales of gold coins by the U.S. Mint are heading for the highest total since December 2009 after prices in New York had the worst two-day slump in three decades.
As of Wednesday, sales totaled 196,500 ounces, up from 62,000 in March, data on the mint’s website show. The amount for all of December 2009 was 231,500 ounces.
The mint said on April 23 it suspended sales of coins weighing a 10th of an ounce after demand more than doubled in 2013 from a year earlier. Shoppers from India to China and Japan joined consumers in the U.S. and Australia in the rush to buy jewelry and coins following a price decline that sent bullion into a bear market after 12 years of gains.
“The crash in prices has provoked huge new interest in physical bullion,” Miguel Perez-Santalla, a vice president at New York-based BullionVault, said in a telephone interview. “Our business last week was 250 percent more than a week before.”
The mint sells 22-karat American Eagles of 1 ounce, half an ounce, a quarter and a tenth of an ounce.
“The 1-ounce gold bullion coins are the most popular,” Michael White, a Mint spokesman, said
Wednesday.
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