Perth Mint silver sales in October get a little bump but everything else is bottom feeding

We seem to be just peddling doom and gloom every month when looking at the bullion coin sales of the big three mints that publish regular figures. The fact remains that there’s little to be optimistic about. Where there are signs of improvement they tend to be slight and fleeting. When the news is bad, its really bad. United States Mint sales in particular are experiencing a drop in numbers the likes of which we can’t remember.

GOLD EAGLE: Sales are up 4k/oz on September, but down a simply staggering 100k/oz on October 2016. While this is the second consecutive monthly rise in sales this year, the overall numbers are so low that the percentage increases are irrelevant. Year-to-date numbers are under a ¼ million ounces, compared to 808k/oz over the same period in 2016. Even the same period in the relatively poor 2014 calendar year was almost double these numbers. To put it into perspective, October 2016 sales were over 13k/oz more than March to October 2017 sales combined. The Gold Buffalo is equally battered.

SILVER EAGLE: October sales have tripled and are back over a million ounces after a catastrophic September. Usually when you see the phrase “October sales have tripled”, they’d be popping chanpagne corks, but the circa 1m/oz sold are barely a quarter of those in either of the last two Octobers, and just over a sixth of October 2014. Best put the corks back in… There’s no getting away from the fact that ASE sales have been utterly dire this year, despite a promising January. Year-to-date sales of just 17m/oz are less than half of any of the previous four years – even worse if you start the comparison in February, and the malaise shows little sign of abating.

PERTH GOLD: Numbers are down on gold coins and minted bar at the Perth Mint, but not catastrophically so. A small drop of just 4% on September 2017 is statistically insignificant, although the drop of 44% from October 2016 is perhaps more telling. Year-to-date sales of 317k/oz are down on last years equivalent 402k/oz, but the 21% drop is the highlight of these mints numbers so far this year.

PERTH SILVER: A nice bump of 43% to near 1m/oz in October is welcome news for the Perth Mint with its new 2018 designs now revealed and (mostly) up for sale. The drop of just 8% on October 2016 is also less severe than expected, but year-to-date sales remain a quarter below last year. Nothing like the pain the US Mint is experienceing, but hardly a banner performance.

As usual, we’ll push you towards looking at our interactive and regularly updated graphs. Colour-coded for ease of reading, they do show a stark picture of just how bad Eagle sales in particular, have been this year. Just click the blue button link or choose BULLION SALES in the menu.