U.S. Mint Suspends Sale of 24k Gold Coins

-- JCK-Jewelers Circular Keystone, 9/26/2008 2:26:00 PM

The United States Mint is temporarily halting sales of its American Buffalo 24k gold coins because it can't keep up with soaring demand, The Associated Press reports.

The Mint said Friday that the sales were being suspended because demand for the coins, which were first introduced in 2006, has exceeded supply and the Mint's inventory of the coins has been depleted, the AP reports.

The Mint had to temporarily suspend sales of its American Eagle one-ounce gold coins on Aug. 15 and then later that month announced sales of the American Eagle coins would resume under an allocation program to designated dealers.

The Mint said it expected to soon start distributing available Buffalo gold coins through a similar allocation program, the AP reports.

Through Thursday, the day the Mint suspended sales of the American Buffalo, the Mint had sold 164,000 of the coins this year, up 54 percent from the same period a year ago, the AP reports.

The Mint introduced the American Buffalo gold coin, the country's first 24-karat gold coin, in 2006. Congress authorized production of the coin in an effort to capture a portion of the global market for pure gold coins, competing with such coins as the Canadian Maple Leaf.