Gold, platinum and palladium declined on Friday, trimming their weekly gains, while silver scored a seven-week settlement high.
Ending lower for the first time in four sessions, gold for April delivery fell $12.10, or 0.6%, to finish at $1,983.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gold prices climbed 0.5% on the week. Further, the yellow metal has advanced a combined $166.70, or 9.2%, through its four consecutive weekly gains. On Thursday, gold posted its highest settlement since March 10, 2022. It is 8.6% higher on the year to date.
In looking ahead to next week, Kitco News offers the following forecasts via their Wall Street & Main Street surveys:
"This week, 20 Wall Street analysts participated in the Kitco News Gold Survey. Among the participants, 13 analysts, or 65%, were bullish on gold in the near term. At the same time, five analysts, or 25%, were bearish for next week, and two analysts, or 10%, saw prices trading sideways.
Meanwhile, 896 votes were cast in online polls. Of these, 639 respondents, or 71%, looked for gold to rise next week. Another 152, or 17%, said it would be lower, while 105 voters, or 12%, were neutral in the near term."
Elsewhere, silver for May delivery tacked on 8.3 cents, or 0.4%, to settle at $23.339 an ounce. For a third straight session, the settlement was the highest since Feb. 2. Silver prices notched a 3.9% weekly increase after soaring 9.5% last week. However, they are 2.9% lower on the year.
In PGM prices on Friday and for the week:
-
April platinum shed $9, or 0.9%, to end at $983.90 an ounce, but edged 0.5% higher on the week.
- Palladium for June delivery lost $18.40, or 1.3%, to end at $1,414.40 an ounce, slimming its weekly gain to 2%.
The pair remain lower on the year so far with losses of 9.1% for platinum and 21.3% for palladium.
US Mint Bullion Sales in 2023
This week, U.S. Mint bullion sales soared, for platinum, gold and silver coins. In week-over-week comparisons:
- American Platinum Eagles: 7,500 ounces, for their first weekly total this year,
- American Gold Eagles: 107,500 ounces against 41,500 ounces,
- American Gold Buffalos: 38,500 ounces compared to 14,500 ounces, and
- American Silver Eagles: 450,000 ounces against 0 ounces.
Below is a sales breakdown of U.S. Mint bullion products with columns listing the number of coins sold during varying periods.
| US Mint Bullion Sales (# of coins) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friday | Last Week | This Week | January Sales | February | March | 2023 Sales | |
| $50 American Eagle 1 Oz Gold Coin | 15,500 | 39,500 | 107,500 | 118,000 | 41,500 | 157,500 | 317,000 |
| $25 American Eagle 1/2 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37,000 | 8,000 | 1,000 | 46,000 |
| $10 American Eagle 1/4 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 8,000 | 0 | 62,000 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 84,000 |
| $5 American Eagle 1/10 Oz Gold Coin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 115,000 | 85,000 | 10,000 | 210,000 |
| $50 American Buffalo 1 Oz Gold Coin | 7,500 | 14,500 | 38,500 | 59,000 | 19,500 | 57,500 | 136,000 |
| $1 American Eagle 1 Oz Silver Coin | 0 | 0 | 450,000 | 3,949,000 | 900,000 | 900,000 | 5,749,000 |
| $100 American Eagle 1 Oz Platinum Coin | 0 | N/A | 7,500 | N/A | N/A | 7,500 | 7,500 |
Why bother to dig up, refine, shape and stamp precious metal coinage when it’s all going back underground one way or another anyway? Instead, just sell guaranteed potential ownership shares of prospective mapped out unmined precious metal deposits, and accept I.O.U.s as the purchasing currency to keep things fair, equal and on the level.
Because then they would have to pay you one for one. By refining and shaping and stamping they sell finished product, not raw material. No way could they manipulate price by selling 12 paper oz to 1 physical of silver or 18 paper to 1 physical gold. And who would get paid first? First order first filled. Would the rich jump the line like they always do and pay an expedition fee? Do they have 1 oz per house until everyone gets a piece. And is it before or after they excrude it from the rock, chemical bathe it to… Read more »
D and C, I wonder if active volcano’s played a part of your story. Back in the day, way back in the day, volcano’s were very active and certain cultures sacrificed humans in active magma to appease their Gods. Magma cools to form pumice and I’ll bet a smart guy thought ” if that burning stuff cools to this, what happens if I throw one of those shiny things in it?” The rest is, as they say, History!
Problem with volcanoes is usually toxic fumes. Or intense heat. Hard to observe when gasses blur reality. Plus I’m sure bronze and iron ages were way before Hawaii occupied. And even volcanoes not always hot enough to melt certain elements. That’s why we don’t use volcanoes to get rid of plastics instead of oceans.. lived on Hawaii. Pele’s spirit is strong. Maybe aliens showed us. Soon we’ll evolve into the perfect slave.
I’m willing to bet that if it’s a race between us finding another intelligent civilization somewhere “out there” or such a civilization getting to our neck of the woods first, the odds of the latter scenario are astronomically higher. As it is, we haven’t yet gotten anywhere close to being able to travel throughout our solar system much less cross the multiple light years distance between stars in our own galaxy. And as for the notion of intergalactic transit, fuhgettaboutit.
A picture window view of billions of years of time-space…
“Multiple light years?”, more like thousands of light years distance between stars in our galaxy. But I think you already know that. Can you imagine the cost to fund the technology needed to get to another solar system with our unionized workforce. We’re just about bankrupt and we haven’t set foot on Mars yet. The good news is, Kaiser, we don’t need space travel to reach another galaxy. The Andromeda galaxy is on a collision course with our Milky Way galaxy….all we need to do is wait another 5 billion years. The bad news is our sun probably will have… Read more »
Craig, I used the term multiple because there are vast differences between how far our sun is from other stars in our galaxy, starting with four light years to our “neighbor” Proxima Centauri and increasing to well over a hundred thousand light years to stars at the far end of the Milky Way. As to our perception of future cosmic events, since the human race has progressed monumentally over the past few hundred thousand years imagine what kind of beings we may evolve into over another such incredibly long stretch of time.
Lizard people. Well lizards have regeneration capabilities. Whether they evolve to live forever is something else. Most probable is aliens are robots or androids. Most of the galaxy we see is already dead. Light just reaching us from galaxies long gone. What I wonder is, how does light from big bang reach us? How did all these planets and stars traverse the universe, suddenly coalesce from dust and gas into planets and stars then cluster into galaxies and suddenly are doused in light from big bang. If everything came from singularity. Light would pass outward. Even with massive explosion, none… Read more »
Two things and two things only (not to be confused with the Red October’s Senior Captain [the late very great] Sean Connery’s “One ping and one ping only”).
1) When the clouds of matter gravitationally transformed into stars, those created the light we see.
2) After the Big Bang the Inflation era of the universe’s expansion exceeded the speed of light.
What an amazingly educational and brilliantly enlightening presentation that was, Dazed and Coinfused. Far and away one of the most imaginative descriptions of the essentially intricate and unbelievably difficult steps involved in the process of metal preparation and product creation I have ever had the pleasure of encountering on this always illustrious site. Kudos, my friend!
Greatness recognizes greatness
You’re too kind.
To impress and educate someone decades my elder is an honor. To show perspective and open dialog is invaluable. And maybe it Kickstarts utopia. You may not always agree with results but results are results. Life isn’t binary. Zeroes and ones. There is a middle and a neutral. On off and balanced. Which makes sense since 3 is holy. The holy trinity, completing trifectas, prime and trinomials. Father son holy spirit/ ghost or whatever. Birth death and second coming. Triangle strong. Pyramid. You get the idea.
“results are results” “Life isn’t binary” “There is a middle and a neutral” “On off and balanced” “…3 is holy” My own best evidence of these being true is my boundlessly wonderful marriage. We support and complement each other. While I learn from her, she learns from me. When we need comfort and/or support we are each the other’s greatest source of either and both. I am one person and she is another and together we are more than the parts, we are a sum that far surpasses anything either one of us would be alone. 1+1=3. I certainly do… Read more »
5.8 million $1 ASE sold in 2023? With none sold last week. I think they may have included bullion with it too. But bullion doesn’t have $1 stamped on it. I know they went unlimited with no house limit for the W ase, but that sounds like a lot for just one coin to be sold (yes the 50,000 congrats coins, but it’s the same thing, different packaging).
That’s what blows my mind, why any person (a.k.a. idiot) would spend a couple thousand dollars for a PR70 2016 ASE out of the Congratulations Set. It’s just a PR ASE packaged in a different cardboard container! They add the word “Sub-set” and we’re all supposed to faint or something.
Craig and Dazed and Coinfused,
No matter how many mentions of and/or referrals to the Congratulations Set I happen to come across here I never cease to wonder exactly what the unique attraction of that product is. I understand it’s an alternative packaging format for that particular coin, but aside from that one difference there is simply nothing that distinguishes the Congratulation Set ASE from all the others of its kind that would possibly account for such a radically enhanced premium price.
Kaiser & Craig, I certainly agree – some coin dealers take advantage of the coin grading services putting the words “Congratulation Set” on the grading label & count it in their population reports separately from the same coin in different packaging, making it appear rare – an act of fraud in my opinion. Plus, the U.S. Mint is flawed also on this issue, as they call it a “Set,” when it has only 1 coin in a thin cardboard folder with the COA printed on the back cover. It is NOT a set! Crazy stuff going on for years now… Read more »
Seth, totally agree! Although it is called a set, there is just one coin; the “Set” refers to the original government packaging. Supposedly, “the American Silver Eagle Congratulations Set, issued annually since 2013, is one of the U.S. Mints most eagerly awaited products because collectors discovered this coin has a very low annual designated mintage that makes it highly collectible.”
Congratulations set is just a quick and efficient way of buying a gift. Instead of $80 for a proof coin you pay $82 and we’ll give you the same coin and include a basic card. One stop shopping. Covers graduations, weddings, anniversaries, special occasions, passing tests, beating diseases or whatever. Or introduces young to metals, like passing down a touch, rite of passage, family tradition. Is a nice gift and rarely offensive. It’s basically Amazon with a gift card. It is a subset, so even an issue of one, would be a set. At least a set from a series.
Technically, one coin plus one card equals one set. Close enough.
The resale on a Congrat set is well worth the extra $2.
If a grand kid found it at funeral and sold it to pawn shop (congrats set) but without the papers to show it as such, if sent for grading it’d be considered a standard ase. Nothing at all to differentiate it. Again, just gift wrapped versions. Always gift metals. Whether coin or bars or teef or jewelry art or whatever. Metals will always have a following
Whether or not you live long enough to harvest great profit, that’s the real question. But low, sell high. But always count on egos that want differentiation. Buy early and buy often. It all comes out in the wash
Buy early and often, but don’t vote early and often; it’s frowned upon.
I suppose, Dazed and Coinfused, if provenance is so important then the Mint’s Congratulation set might just be considered a variation on that theme.
Kaiser,
Now if they put a “c” privy mark on it to represent Congratulations Set then I’d pay a hefty premium for it. Are you listening Mint?
Now that’s a sharp idea, Craig; the Mint should get right on it!
Kaiser, seeing how the ASE can be easily removed from its capsule and handled or replaced in the box version- I’d say the benefit of the Congrat set packaging is that if it is intact, you know it’s the original untouched coin.
That’s a good point, Major D.
An extra $2 is a “radically enhanced premium price”?
That phrase, Major D, referred to the often outrageous prices being asked for the ASE-W Proof Coin taken from the Congratulation Set by the likes of Caffeine Mike and similar major-profit-seeking resellers and not for the $2 extra the Mint charges for their product.
Thanks for the clarification, Kaiser. As a counter argument, how can you say that prices are outrageous if people are buying? I don’t begrudge anybody making a profit on their coins, or in making as much profit as they can- as long as its honestly advertised and the same is delivered. Unless there is fraud (like in delivering Chinese counterfeits in bogus slabs) the shame I’d say falls on the people buying who are not comparing prices or doing their own research and due diligence.
A coin doesn’t have to be counterfeit, Major D, for there to be fraud involved in its sale to the public. For example, selling bullion ASEs as collectable grade ASEs is fraud by any other name.
I suppose they look at it like muscle cars. A GTO fetches a certain crowd, but a Judge is the apex. So regular w ase $1 is a GTO, and congrats set is the Judge. Or perhaps Mustang and bullit. Or Mach 1 or boss 302. Or camaro and ss or rs or z28 or iroc z. It’s the mint’s version of their magic mike limited edition. Lol.
If the mint sold wooden nickels would magic mike slab them in red oak?
D & C,
Mike Mezack would sell human organs on Home Shopping Network (HSN) if it was legal in the USA!
NumisdudeTX
I think, Seth, if Meth Mike switched to Etsy he could probably swing it.
Thanks for painting that image in my head Seth!
And you’d still get to hear everything twice everything twice, Craig.
If metal coins are slabbed and/or boxed in red oak, wouldn’t wooden nickels have to be displayed in blue steel to keep the coin universe balanced?
Pyrite
Pie write? Pi right? Pyrite!
$2,850.00 – U.S. Mint (finally) lists price for 1oz American Gold Eagle Proof 2023
$2,258.84 – APMEX price for same 2023 coin Bullion
$1,963.40 – Current gold spot price, KITCO
What do you do? If anything…
P.S. My local, elite coin store pukes at U.S. Mint Proof coins. Pays spot for them.