Hot First Day Sales for 2010 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins

The 2010 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins charged off of the US Mint's shelves in their first day of availability, according to sales released by the Mint.

As reported earlier this week, the Buffalo Bullion launched on Thursday, April 29, 2010 - the first day in which the Mint's network of authorized purchasers were allowed to place orders for the strikes.  In just the first day, the Mint sold 48,500 of the 24-karat gold pieces.

Sales like that indicate that the buyers were anxious to get their hands on some of the investment pieces, evidently still weary from last years Buffalo Bullion shortage.  In 2009, a lack of a sufficient supply of gold blanks forced the Mint to hold off releasing the coins until late in the year when they could build up enough inventory.

On October 15, 2009 the Mint started offering the pieces and an astonishing 71,500 were ordered in the first four days.  It took less than two months for the Mint to declare a sell-out of the strikes on December 4th with 200,000 sold.  While not enough to beat the debut year of the strikes in 2006 for sales, it was enough to top the 2007 and 2008 sales.

Now with almost 50,000 sold in just one day, it is not out of the realm of possibility for the 2010 strikes to break the all-time record of 2006.  In fact, just the launch day this year accounted for over 15% of 2006's 323,000 total sold.

The America Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins contain the same basic obverse and reverse imagery of the extremely popular nickel that launched in 1913 dubbed either the "Indian Head Nickel" or the "Buffalo Nickel."  James Earle Fraser completed the designs during a renaissance of American circulating coinage that occured near the beginning of the last century.

Each of these coins are struck from one ounce of .9999 fine gold and are meant as investment options for the public but see many collectors interested in them as well. Proof versions of the coin are also usually struck but the Mint has not yet released an availability date for those - only stating they will be available this year.

The US Mint does not sell the bullion coins directly to the public but instead uses a network of authorized purchasers who buy them in bulk from the Mint only to resell them in smaller quantities to coin dealers and individuals for a small premium over the spot price of the gold contained within them.

Related World Mint Coins articles:

• 2010 American Buffalo Gold Bullion Coins Available Soon
• US Mint Bullion Coin Sales: 2009 Buffalo Gold at 145,500
• 2009 Gold American Buffalo Proof Coins Sell Out

Posted by World Mint Coins Staff on May 1 2010. Filed under Gold Coins, United States Coins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry