It’s that time of the month when the United States Mint and the Perth Mint release their monthly bullion sales numbers, the former for its American Eagle coins in gold and silver, and the latter for total sales of both metals in coin and minted bar forms. None are as depressing as they have been so far in 2015, so it is possible a corner has been turned and interest, at least in the short term, may be returning.

American Gold Eagles, and Perth Mint silver are the standouts, especially the latter which remains the only one not to be coming off of some very poor numbers. While the others look good in comparison to how bad they’ve been in previous months, Perth silver is beginning to just look good, and with some new additions on the way, it may be a trend that is going to continue.

Check out the graphs and remember that they’re always available by clicking BULLION SALES on the main menu. We update them every month as well as the US Mints beautiful Bufallo coin sales that we we think sell in numbers not significant enough to determine market trends, but are worth noting regardless. We also keep tabs on another very important bullion coin series, the Canadian gold and silver Maple Leaf coins, but unfortunately, the Royal Canadian Mint only publishes numbers quaterly, and even then, quite late. We’re still waiting for numbers for the last quarter of 2014 which come out in the RCM’s Annual Report due pretty soon. As we stand today, their numbers are annoyingly six months behind.

UNITED STATES MINT

People must be breathing a sigh of relief over at the US Mint with regards to gold sales. After a poor debut got even worse in February, for the first time in the last few years, March sales have risen instead of continuing the downward trend. Sales rose from 18.5k, to 46.5k ounces, a healthy jump of over 150%, and more significantly, well over double that of 2014. Sales to date this year have just climbed above last years. April has been the month in recent years when sales climb, and while it would be a stretch to suggest 2013’s numbers would be repeated, a further rise could indicate the year might be heading to be a better one all round.

Silver remains down, on 2014, but the small rise in sales must be welcomed; at least the drop has been arrested for the moment. Numbers remain under two-thirds of 2014’s however, although just above 2013.

PERTH MINT

The Perth Mint must be quite pleased with March numbers after a couple of less than impressive months. Gold continues to climb from its calamitous January debut, and while the rise has slowed, it’s still rising, breaking last years comparitive monthly sales for the first time this annum. Still a way to go before we see if overall gold sales this year will rise, especially when total numbers are looked at in context. This January was worse than any month last year, and this Feb and March  combined barely broke last years numbers for January alone.

Silver has bounced back nicely to record its highest March sales of the last three years, rising over 17% (93,392 oz) on the same month in 2014. With the new Funnel-Web spider one-ounce bullion coin just released, and with the new half-ounce Hammerhead Shark bullion coin days away from its debut, we could see some fine gains in April.