4 March 2008 - 10:26Thousands of First Spouse Gold Coins Melted
According to an article in the March 10, 2008 issue of Coin World, thousands of First Spouse Gold Coins have been melted. While this has implications about current demand for the series, it also has implications about the future of the series.
The coins were melted by SilverTowne, a coin dealer and private mint. According to the article, SilverTowne has melted between 5,000 and 7,000 Martha Washington and Louisa Adams coins, including both proof and uncirculated versions. An unspecified number of Thomas Jefferson’s Liberty coins were also melted. In addition, the firm has melted thousands of other recently issued gold commemoratives coins.
According to the president of SilverTowne, the coins were melted after his firm identified little or no retail demand.
I think it’s actually quite saddening that SilverTowne would choose to melt these coins. If they had offered them for sale at melt value prices, I think they would have readily found buyers to deplete their entire inventory. From the firm’s perspective this would have accomplished the same task of liquidating the inventory at the prevailing price of gold without destroying the coins.
As for the implications of the melt, in the short term it seems to indicate a lack of short term demand. In my opinion there is plenty of demand for the coins, as evidenced by the dozens that sell each day on eBay for prices well above the melt value. Perhaps there was just not the kind of bulk demand needed to quickly sell thousands of the coins.
As for the future implications of the melt, a single source has just removed almost 10% of the entire mintage. Mintage figures for these coins will be misleading future collectors, who may find the coins are more scarce than the mintages indicate.
Secondly, the early speculative demand of the series is probably at an end, but this might be a good thing. SilverTowne’s purchases of thousands of the coins no doubt helped fuel the demand. With them and other similar speculators out of the picture, future issues may end up with significantly lower mintages. Eventually there might be super low mintage coins like the Jackie Robinson Gold Commemorative which become worth far more than their weight in gold.
The First Spouse Gold Series is a marathon, not a sprint. It is currently scheduled to run for ten more years. While early speculation has dissolved, I am sure the future has many surprises left in store.
4 Comments | Tags: Series
05 Mar 2008 - 8:05
[...] Another melting story, thousands of First Spouse Gold Coins are melted. Some reactions and implications. [...]
06 Mar 2008 - 17:58
Michael’s article on the SilverTowne meltdown of First Spouse coins is a little naive. SilverTowne at retail was trying to get ridiculously high prices for these coins. They chose to melt, and probably at a profit from their original buy prices, because, pure and simple, it is far less costly to commit to the smelter than it is to market and ship at melt value prices.
08 Mar 2008 - 22:17
I find this very strange since these coins sold out with in hours of being offered. Like someone else pointed out Ebay is doing very well with selling them over melt price. I happen to own a few of each sets of proof & UNC and knew it was a sound investment. There’s only 40,000 total of each member of the President’s wives. Now I understand it to be a certain amount of each were made then at 5,000 total or 2,500 each it was based on what was ordered. The U.S Mint will give us there totals in a report this year of how many coins of each were minted. Now that this has happened you will find that the people who have bought the first 3 coins of the presidents wive will have the best chance of having a true collectible and will most likely be more than the Jackie Roberson coin since it’s about the first spouse and the fact that there’s never been a Gold coin to say such. If you do have any of these first 3 spouse’s hang on to them and don’t even put them on Ebay , and I assure you there will be someone putting them on that site and the price will be HUGE !!!!!! Just wait and you will reep the Gold. You don’t even need to have them graded they’ll do just fine on there own. Ladies & Gentlemen this is a blessing in disguise.
Good luck and have Faith.
06 Apr 2008 - 6:52
Numismaster’s latest statistics on the sale (or non-sale as the situation has become) of the Lizzy Monroe gold coins suggests that someone is accumulating a few of these currently overpriced coins on spec, since another Jackie Robinson appears to be in the making. I cannot see any other reason other than stupidity for the Monroes and Madison coins being sold at the same time for such a disparity in price. Of course, the Mint may be using the ploy, as I have suggested on a previous occasion, to spur the sale of Madisons. But unless gold starts moving up again to justify the offering prices for the Monroes, the Mint’s ambitious First Spouse gold coin program may come to an abrupt end out of indifference. Frankly, many gold coins, including bullion, semi-numismatic, and numismatic, exist at much lower premiums over spot with aesthetics equal to or exceeding the First Spouse coins. The Mint needs to look at the market for pricing guidance, or taxpayer dollars will have been wasted pushing a program for which no realistic demand can be expected.