The United States Mint ended a record year with a slow month. The American Silver Eagle bullion coins recorded their lowest monthly sales figure of the year at 1,772,000 ounces for December 2010.
For the full year, sales totaled 34,662,500 of the one ounce .999 fine silver coins. This established a new annual record for the third consecutive year. In previous years, the US Mint sold 19,583,500 ounces for 2008, followed by 28,766,500 for 2009.
| January | 3,592,500 |
| February | 2,050,000 |
| March | 3,381,000 |
| April | 2,507,500 |
| May | 3,636,500 |
| June | 3,001,000 |
| July | 2,981,000 |
| August | 2,451,000 |
| September | 1,880,000 |
| October | 3,150,000 |
| November | 4,260,000 |
| December | 1,772,000 |
| Total | 34,662,500 |
The slow down for December can likely be attributed to the pending release of the 2011 Silver Eagle bullion coins. The US Mint began sales of the coins to authorized purchasers on January 3, 2011. Generally, collectors and investors will prefer the newly dated coins, so authorized purchasers may have cut back their orders for the preceding month to avoid getting stuck with 2010-dated coins when the calendar turned over.
Will 2011 mark a fourth consecutive year of record breaking sales? Silver’s recent strong performance may keep investors focused on “poor man’s gold.” With only a few days in the books, the US Mint has already sold more than 2 million coins during January.
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