US Mint Gold Coin Price Increase

The price of gold has been in a steady range for much of the summer, mostly below the $950 level. This has kept the US Mint's current gold coin offerings at steady prices since mid-June. The past week's gold prices suggest that the US Mint will be raising the prices for their numismatic gold coins tomorrow today.

Under the US Mint's pricing policy implemented on January 12, 2009, the prices for gold and platinum numismatic products can be adjusted as often as weekly if the average price of the metals move across certain ranges. For the past few months, the average price of gold has remained in the $900.00 to $949.50 range. For the past few days, gold has been solidly above the $950 mark, pushing up the average. The following are the London Fix prices for gold over the past week. Note that Monday was a UK bank holiday so no prices were determined.

	AM Fix	PM Fix
Thurs Aug 27	943.50	943.00
Fri Aug 28	950.75	955.50
Mon Aug 31	N/A	N/A
Tue Sept 1	949.75	955.00
Wed Sept 2	955.00	964.75

The AM and PM Fix prices listed above yield an average of $952.16, which suggests that a price increase is in the works. Pricing for the $950 to $999.99 average gold price tier would set First Spouse Gold Coins at $654.00 for proof coins and $641.00 for uncirculated coins. The 2009 Ultra High Relief Double Eagle price would increase to $1,339.00.

The US Mint's policy states that price adjustments will be effective at 10:00 AM ET on Thursday. However in practice they have sometimes increased prices as early as 12:00 Noon ET on Wednesday.

One last thing I wanted to note about the pricing policy. The information posted in the Federal Register about the new policy repeatedly states that the average of the London Fix prices will be taken covering "previous Thursday A.M. Fix through the Wednesday A.M. Fix." Most have been working under the assumption that PM Fix prices would also be included in the average. Gold prices are "fixed" twice a day at 10:30 AM and 3:00 PM London Time.

If the US Mint is only considering only the AM Fix prices for some reason, then the average price for this week would be $949.75. This would keep gold coins at the current prices. This week's price change (or lack of change) will at least settle this ambiguity in their policy.

Update: Within a few minutes after posting this, the US Mint has temporarily suspended sales of all gold coins for repricing. This settles the question about the inclusion of PM Fix prices. It also establishes once again that the US Mint changes prices about a day earlier than the policy states.