Did the Flowing Hair Dollars Sell Out?
The Proof 2024 230th Anniversary Flowing Hair High-Relief gold dollar, launched on November 14, is arguably the most important coin the United States Mint has produced since the 2009 Ultra High-Relief gold double eagle ($20).
That is because of the 1794 dollar’s history and the impressive way the mint has re-imagined the piece with 21st-century technology. It is undoubtedly one of the finest designs of all time, rendered exquisitely in high relief. In addition, the coin is the first laser-engraved piece ever to be struck by the mint.
As anyone who tried to purchase one when they went on sale online knows, they sold out in just four minutes. Many veteran buyers thought it was unlikely that the coining facility would sell the entire mintage of 17,500 for this piece at almost $3,700 so quickly.
In the weeks since, conflicting information has circulated within the numismatic community regarding whether this piece sold out, its actual mintage, and whether the mint will offer any more coins.
In advance of the start of sales, the U.S. Mint told Coin World’s Paul Gilkes that it had struck the full authorized maximum mintage of 17,500. It turns out, however, that they actually did not produce that many.
U.S. Mint Says Coin Is Gone
On December 2, in response to an inquiry for this piece, Michael White at the United States Mint confirmed that the coin has indeed sold out. He explained that while the mint could strike as many as 17,500 of these gold coins, they decided not to exercise that option. Instead, they limited the coin to only 10,000, making it one of the lowest mintage gold coins in modern U.S. Mint history.
Mr. White could not elaborate on why mint officials made only 10,000 of these trendy coins, adding that it was unrelated to a shortage of gold coin planchets.
The 10,000 coins sold include 2,000 reserved for sale to companies in the mint’s Authorized Bulk Purchase Program (with actual sales of 1,994) and 7,941 that were sold online on November 14 or since then (typically early in the morning), according to an updated figure from the U.S. Mint that Coin News provided on November 19.
The 7,941 figure includes 500 coins sold on November 14 at the Whitman Baltimore Expo. In addition, the first 230 coins struck that feature a “230” privy mark will be sold on December 12 during a Stacks-Bowers auction.
Thus, total sales are about 9,935, which will likely change as orders are reconciled.
Silver Medals
A similar situation occurred with the silver medal, which had the same design as the gold coin. The 49,996 medals were sold online, and 10,000 were reserved for bulk sales. The medal has an authorized mintage of 75,000, but it seems the Mint also opted to make less than that amount of these.
Collectors now know they must purchase gold coins on the secondary market if they want one.