It has now been over 5 weeks since the Elizabeth Monroe First Spouse Gold Coins went on sale at the US Mint. Sales are tracking lower than any other prior offering in the series.

As of April 3, 2008, Mint Statistics indicate that 6,180 proof coins have been sold and 3,632 uncirculated coins have been sold. This places total sales at 9,812 or roughly 25% of the total authorized mintage.

Collectors will recall that the first three coins of the First Spouse Gold Coin Program each sold out at the Mint in less than one day. The fourth coin offered honoring Dolley Madison is still currently available at the Mint, but sales have slowly been working their way upwards. As of April 3, 2008, 17,377 proof coins have been sold and 10,776 uncirculated coins have been sold.

A large drag on the Elizabeth Monroe sales has to be the Mint’s odd pricing. As covered in previous posts, the Dolley Madison and Elizabeth Monroe coins are both being offered for sale at the same time, but Dolley Madison prices are $90 less per coin. I think this is acting to discourage sales of the Elizabeth Monroe coins and perhaps encourage sales of the Dolley Madison coins.

Other factors impacting sales are the recent slide in the spot price of gold, which is now trading in the low $900’s, and the natural inclination for interest in a series to wane as time moves on.

A recent commenter of this blog mentioned that we may have another 1997-W Jackie Robinson Gold in the making. This coin had lackluster sales when it was offered by the Mint, leaving it with a mintage of only 5,174. Once collectors realized the coin’s scarcity, prices spiked. The First Spouse Gold series definitely bears watching for a repeat of this situation.

PCGS & NGC Elizabeth Monroe Coins.

As of this morning, sales of the proof version of the Dolley Madison First Spouse Gold Coin have been suspended at the US Mint. This follows the previous suspension of the uncirculated version of the coin on March 3, 2008.

The US Mint’s product page currently shows the following message:

Due to the increasing market value of gold, the Dolley Madison Gold Proof Coins are temporarily unavailable while pricing for this option can be adjusted; therefore, no orders can be taken at this time.

This suspension follows more than two weeks of the odd, mismatched pricing between the Dolley Madison and Elizabeth Monroe coins. When the Elizabeth Monroe coins were released on February 28, 2008, they were priced at $619.95 and $599.95 for proof and uncirculated versions of the coin. The previous issue in the series honoring Dolley Madison remained on sale for $529.95 and $509.95. This led to the curious case of two coins from the same series with the same one-half ounce gold content having two vastly different prices at the same time.

When sales of the Dolley Madison coins resume, they will likely be repriced in line with the Elizabeth Monroe coin prices. That is, unless the price of gold experiences another significant run.

Dolley Madison Coins For Sale

The US Mint has just released the new pricing for the upcoming Elizabeth Monroe First Spouse Gold Coins. These coins will first be available from the Mint on February 28, 2008.

The price for the proof version of the coin will be $619.95. The price for the uncirculated version of the coin will be $599.95.

This represents a significant increase over prior coins in the series. The most recent Dolley Madison coin was offered at $529.95 and $509.95 for proof and uncirculated coins, respectively. The previous Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Thomas Jefferson’s Liberty coins were offered at $429.95 and $410.95 for proof and uncirculated coins, respectively.

The main culprit for the increasing price is the cost of gold. Each coin contains one-half ounce of gold and since the series inception, the price of gold has substantially risen.

Many are predicting that these higher prices will be a drag on the series. This may be true in the short term, but since the series will run for about 10 years, who knows what will happen in the interim.

Find coins for sale at the First Spouse Gold Store.