Stacks Bowers is buying and selling all rare coins and currency

HomeUS Coins2015 American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin "Sells Out" Within Hours -...

2015 American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin “Sells Out” Within Hours – Updated

gonegirl

By Hubert Walker for CoinWeek ….

Update: The US Mint website states that “This item is available to be ordered now, but it is not currently in stock. Additional inventory is being made…..The expected delivery date for back-ordered coins is Thursday October 1st 2015.

Also the Mint just announced that the first day sales total was 36,686 coins.

The 2015 American Liberty High Relief 24-karat gold coin went on sale today at noon Eastern Standard Time. Within hours it was “sold out”.

By the end of the business day (about 5:00 p.m. EST), the coin was listed as “Currently Unavailable” on www.usmint.gov, the website of the United States Mint. This means that while present inventory has been depleted, the Mint may resume sales at a later date when new product stock is available.  The mintage limit for this coin was set at 50,000 pieces. Collectors can sign up for an email reminder that lets them know when this will happen, if it happens at all.

The U.S. Mint usually sends a notice to news media if no new stock will be forthcoming. CoinWeek will publish the details of such an announcement if it is made.

The 24-karat gold American Liberty high relief coin consists of one troy ounce of 99.99% pure gold and has a face value of $100. It has a reeded edge and a ‘W’ mint mark for West Point. When it went on sale, the coin was priced at $1,490 according to the spot price of gold and the Mint’s retail markup table as seen here.

Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) artist Justin Kunz designed the obverse of Miss Liberty holding a flagpole and the American Flag attached to it in her left hand and a lit torch similar to that held by the Statue of Liberty in her right. The inscriptions LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and the year 2015. Kunz’s initials appear above the word GOD, while Mint engraver Phebe Hemphill’s initials appear on the flag near the bottom.

Fellow AIP artist Paul Balan designed the reverse, which features an American Bald Eagle in flight, wings on the upstroke. It holds an olive branch in its claws. Engraver Don Everhart’s initials are visible to the immediate right of the olive branch, while Balan’s initials are under the eagle and to the right of the branch. Inscriptions include UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, the mint mark W, E PLURIBUS UNUM, 1 OZ. .9999 FINE GOLD, and ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS.

The reverse is an adaptation of Balan’s prospective design for the reverse of the American Silver Eagle coin.

Future additions to the Liberty coin series may be in the works if this program is deemed a success.

Hubert Walker
Hubert Walker
Hubert Walker has served as the Assistant Editor of CoinWeek.com since 2015. Along with co-author Charles Morgan, he has written for CoinWeek since 2012, as well as the monthly column "Market Whimsy" for The Numismatist and the book 100 Greatest Modern World Coins (2020) for Whitman Publishing.

Related Articles

19 COMMENTS

  1. Kudos to US Mint. Was online at 9:00am PST had order completed by 9:02am. At 9:27am PST received email that order was confirmed and at 8:04pm PST received email that coin had been shipped. Can’t wait to receive this coin.

  2. Coins are already back up for sale this evening even though they are “backordered”. They are not sold out yet though. Title and graphics a little misleading at this point.

    • Highrelief,

      The coin is now listed as on back order with a deliver date of Oct 1st. They “sold out” of the in stock inventory. CoinWeek will announce when the Mintage Limit of 50,000 is reached whenever that is

  3. Overpriced; mediocre artwork (particularly on obverse), and littered throughout with designers’ initials, which frankly shouldn’t even be permitted on official coinage. Pass.

    • Louis,

      You are correct that it is NOW on back order. The article makes clear that a status of “Unavailable” means that more product will be made available. The fact that no orders can be placed because current inventory has been sold out seems accurate.

    • A bit of semantics……. the initial coin “in stock” inventory, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-35,000 coins was “sold out” yesterday, then posted as “Unavailable” and finally last night put on “back-order” with an estimated delivery date of October 1, 2015.

      The mintage limit of 50,000 has not yet been met.

      So if the term “sold out” can only be used, and only applies to having reached the maximum coin limit of 50,000, then you can enjoy the satisfaction of being right. If one takes a slightly broader view that if you sell all of the product you have IN STOCK, and are forced to manufacture more to meed the demand, than I think the term “Sold Out” certainly would apply.

      • I don’t care about being right. I care about making sure people are not deterred from ordering by the confusing terminology. I know several people who did not place an order because they were under the impression it was truly sold out. I would have to agree with Highrelief above as “Gone Girl” suggests the coin is truly gone, and would note the Mint never uses the term “sold out” until the item is no longer available to order.
        Also, the estimated backorder dates typically are much shorter than the estimate provided when ordering. For example, the Jackie Kennedy proof coins had a similar backorder period of months that quickly became days. In addition, last night when the item went from unavailable to backordered, I placed an order, which is already processing, and when I called customer service I was told it will ship within about a week even though I also was given the early Oct. estimate when ordering.

        • Louis, I think that if anyone reads the content of the article, it clearly states what the current order status of the coin is at the time of publication, and the Oct 1st delivery date for the back-orders is the Mint’s estimate, not ours.

  4. Very nice job by the US Mint getting this exciting new coin up and running online yesterday. Was online promptly at 12:00 noon eastern time and was easily able to place two separate orders. Both confirmed as processing and one confirmed shipped. Very excited to receive this new coin. Given its unique characteristics, I will be watching to see how the after market values this new American Liberty Coin. Also interested to know if the US Mint will decide to move forward with a Silver version.

    • I have been a coin collector for several years now. I buy a lot of coins straight from the mint. I also have several subscriptions. Given that this is the second high relief since the 2009, I personally feel that this one will do just fine in the aftermarket. Too much upside potential on this one. Strong design, 4 9’s, the 1st time ever putting a denomination of $100 on a US gold coin; there’s no way this coin will not be very prosperous down the road. And if one can afford the pcgs, first strike, with Mercanti, plus the double whammy, Moy signed, by all means it is certainly worth the price for this gem. I’m no psychic, but I will bet, one can’t go wrong on buying as many as you can afford on this one!

  5. What an honor it must be for Kim Cattrall to be the poster child for such an iconic coin.

    The future race however will look at our coinage as a record and know that in 2015 we experienced famine. Poor thing, perhaps she’s a vegetarian and just trying to spear the eagle on the reverse with the flag mast and BBQ it with the torch?

  6. Whew, got my order in for 4 of them. Happy to wait for October for them. Really believe when everyone looks back at this, the ones that have them will be very happy. As for me, Miss Liberty looks kinda like my wife a few decades ago…I will never sell these and plan on passing them down to my kids/grandkids.

  7. This coin while different reminds me of a stick figure. The way liberty is put on it looks stickly and the entire design has too many solid lines not much flow. If that makes any sense. I prefer a St. Gaudens.

  8. I was under the distinct impression that this would be a stand alone,,one year ,maximum mintage of 50,000 units but I now fear it will start another Franchise bullion coin series as opposed to the 2009 Ultra High one year strike.

    Say it ain’t so,,Joe,,,,say it ain’t So……

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Bullion Sharks Silver

Bullion Sharks Gold

NGCX Holders and Grading