March bullion coin sales figures are out for the US Mint and the Perth Mint. They’re not good.

The tales of woe continue at the United States Mint with some truly terrible numbers of gold and silver Eagle bullion coins sold in March. Last year was one of the worst for ages, but 2018 has so far utterly failed to approach even those unadventurous targets, with gold down by well over half and silver by well over a third. Gold in particular seems to have fallen off a cliff.

The Perth Mint has fared a little better on the silver front and gold hasn’t dropped anywhere near as much as at the US Mint, but we can’t imagine anybody is jumping for joy at the subdued activity in the market. Why? Perhaps the cryptocurrency frenzy or the jump in stocks has been the key. Both of those are under pressure lately, with crypto falling heavily and stock prices making a lot of people nervous of a big fall. Maybe gold and silver are poised for a comeback. Only time will tell.

1. Wow. It’s hard to put into words just how bad the collapse in American Gold Eagle sales has been. Since we tracked back to the start of 2013, the next worst March had sales SIX TIMES higher than March 2018 and this is the worst March ever recorded. As for 2018 to date, if you take January, February and March and then throw in an extra February and March for good measure, then sprinkle with yet another March, you’re still short of the next worst solo January since 2013! It looks like the bigger financial institutions have simply stopped buying and these numbers are simply regular stackers picking up smaller quants here and there.

2. The American Silver Eagle has taken a small drop of around 3% on February 2018, but remains far below levels of a year ago. It’s hard to find a spark of optimism given the baseline we’re using – 2017 – was a poor year itself. Sales for the year to date are down 36% on that terrible 2017. Take a good recent year like 2016 and the drop is a precipitous 66%.

3. Perth Mint gold is also down on both February 2018 and March 2017, although by nothing like as much as the AGE. The year to date is down a quarter on 2017 however, so there’s no reason for cheer here either.

4. Perth Mint silver is the one bright spot in March. Barely dropping since February, the rise of almost 260,000 ounces over March 2017 must be seen as positive – perhaps an indication of stronger demand in the Asian markets. Year to date numbers are actually up 20% and that’s a rarity this month.

Don’t forget to check out our graphs of all these numbers on the blue button link below. The 2018 graph lines at the US Mint are extraordinary.

 COIN SALES (oz) DIFFERENCE COMPARED TO: YEAR TO DATE
March-2018 March-2017 February-2018 2018 2017
US GOLD EAGLE 3,500 -17,500 -2,000 67,500 166,000
US SILVER EAGLE 915,000 -700,000 -27,500 5,092,500 7,957,500
US GOLD BUFFALO 1,000 -7,500 -1,500 27,500 55,500
PERTH MINT GOLD 29,883 -7,651 -3,410 93,530 120,234
PERTH MINT SILVER 975,921 +259,638 -17,033 3,036,236 2,449,503