U.S. Coin Collecting

US Mint Silver Coin Set Sales Stopped As Silver Soars

The United States Mint has recently halted the sales of two of its silver products, including the 2010 Silver Proof Set and the 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters Silver Proof Set.

Visitors to the Mint's website will find that these two collector coin products now contain the following statement, "This product is temporarily unavailable," which was added to their descriptions on Friday, April 8, 2011. The US Mint has offered no explanation on why it stopped the sales of these coin sets or when they will return to availability.

The true reason behind the sales suspension can be inferred, however. Silver soared to over $40 an ounce on Friday to prices not seen since 1980. This propelled the intrinsic melt value of the coinsto amounts evidently too close to their selling price. A coin set's melt value is roughly equal to the current market price of the silver contained within that set.

The quarters proof set contains the five 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters each struck to proof quality from 90% silver. Added together, these five coins total 0.904 ounces of the precious metal. The silver proof set contains those same five quarters along with nine other strikes, three of which are also struck from the precious metal for a total of 1.34 ounces of silver.

Based on Friday's New York closing silver price of $40.64 an ounce, the melt value of the coin sets stood at $36.72 for the quarters set and $54.35 for the complete set. Before being pulled from theMint's shelves, these sets were being offered for $39.95 and $64.95, respectively.

It is likely that the US Mint is in the process of reviewing new price points for these products, and they will be returned to availability once those prices have been set. At least, this was the procedure followed by the Mint last month when it faced a similar situation as silver rose to over $35 an ounce.

At that time, the US Mint halted the sales of the 2010 quarters set temporarily, only to bring it back at the price of the aforementioned $39.95, which was seven dollars higher than it was originally. The US Mint also updated the price on the 2010 Silver Proof Set that same day, changing it to the $64.95 from its original $56.95. Also affected was the 2011 Quarters Silver Proof Set which had not been released yet. It was listed to sell for $39.95, but instead was offered for $41.95.

Once the United States Mint has finalized a new price for the coin sets, they should once again be available for sale. However, before that occurs, the US Mint will most likely post the new pricing on the Federal Register for public notice.

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