Sales of 2018 Proof Silver Eagle Coins Show Idiosyncrasies of Mint Figures

By CoinWeek Staff Reports ….
According to their latest sales figure update, the United States Mint has sold 226,506 2018-W Proof American Silver Eagles as of Sunday, January 14.

But that doesn’t take into account the 166 bulk boxes it has sold as part of its second year of a new bulk packaging program. At five racks of 42 coins a piece, each bulk box consists of 210 Silver Eagles, which gives us an additional 34,860 coins we might wish to consider.

This would bring our tally up to 261,366, but still we haven’t accounted for all Mint products that feature the new proof coin. The 2018 Congratulations Set, which went on sale January 11, contains one 2018 Proof Silver Eagle per unit. Adding the 9,015 Congratulation Sets sold over the product’s debut weekend to our running total, we now arrive at 270,381 coins sold.

The 2018 American Silver Eagle Proof coin became available for order two weeks ago on January 4. First-day sales, according to Michael White of the Mint’s Office of Corporate Communications, came to 229,926 ounces/coins. This does not include bulk box totals, which also went on sale the same day.

This appears to mean that the U.S. Mint has sold around 40,000 more coins since the Proof Eagle’s debut. Which is all well and good, until one remembers that the Mint’s very own sales figure for the individual product as updated on January 14 was only 226,506 – a decrease of 3,420 coins.

Which is still a substantial increase over January 7, when the Mint reported a total of 211,071 Proofs sold. The total for individual units sold fell by 18,855 coins in just three days, only to increase by 15,435 over the course of the next week.

Not a one of which counts the 154 bulk boxes (32,340 coins) sold by January 7…

Yet while there is truly nothing out of the ordinary about this–indeed, official Mint sales figure updates for a variety of offerings often follow a similar pattern as products are returned or orders go unfulfilled–it is but more proof of the Mint’s confusing reporting on its own sales.

At any rate, only 369,356 individual 2017 Proof Eagles were sold by December 31, along with 240 bulk boxes (50,400 coins). Last year’s Congratulation Set featured Proof coins minted in San Francisco, and so constitute a second (and surprising!) product line (this year’s San Francisco Mint Proof is set to come out this summer). First-day sales of the 2017-W American Silver Eagle Proof coin totaled 226,173. With numbers like these, it is hard to draw firm conclusions about what the rest of the year holds.

So what numbers matter to you? Do you prefer straight product sales figures? Or would you rather know something more akin to a “mintage”? Let us know in the comments.

American Silver Eagles

First introduced in 1986, the American Silver Eagle program has been running strong for 32 years. Each Silver Eagle consists of 1 ounce (31.103 grams) of 99.9% pure silver and has a diameter of 1.598 inches (40.60 mm). The obverse features an adaptation of Adolph A. Weinman’s famous Liberty Walking design from the 1916 Half Dollar. The reverse features former Chief Engraver of the U.S. Mint John Mercanti’s heraldic eagle design – a modern classic. A bullion strike and a numismatic Proof strike are usually issued each year, with the Mint producing Reverse Proofs and Burnished coins periodically.

This year’s Proof is priced at $55.95 and is available directly from the Mint. There is no mintage limit; demand determines how many are struck. Proof Silver Eagles dated 2016 and 2017 are also still available, at a retail price of $53.95.