Rationing of American Gold and Silver Eagle Bullion Coins A Thing of the Past. Again.
This September after more than two years, the United States Mint lifted the rationing of American Gold and Silver Eagle bullion coins. By law, the Mint is required to produce enough of both type of coin to meet public demand, but when they cannot supply enough coins, they resort to meeting as much demand as possible – by allocating the coins on a weekly basis.
The irony is that time and again the U.S. Mint imposes this limitation until it has sufficient coins to satisfy public need, at which time it ends the rationing, and consumers rush to buy the coins, draining the Mint’s resources within weeks or months.
The first time that the U.S. Mint imposed its ”allocation” program was in February of 2008, following a several-weeks’ suspension of Silver Eagles. This allocation rationed the amount of bullion coins amongst authorized purchasers, and the note of the Mint state simply said, “The unprecedented demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins necessitates our allocating these coins on a weekly basis until we are able to meet demand.”
Last year’s rationing of both the gold and the silver bullion coins ended in June 2009 but, as predicted, demand soon shot up, forcing the November 2009 suspension of sales -soon resumed under the all-too-familiar allocation program.
By March of 2010 the rationing had ended for Gold Eagle coins, and by this September, the Silver Eagle coins became fully available.
It seems unlikely, given the U.S. Mint’s unsteady history, that the allocation program for both Gold and Silver Eagle bullion coins will not soon come around again.

The name “Helvetia” comes from the name of Switzerland during Roman times. Julius Caesar conquered the Helveti in 58 BCE, but the name for the currency was resurrected during the Helvetic Republic, when a standardized coinage was reestablished. Prior to 1798, approximately 75 different entities were minting coins in Switzerland. Each entity had its own corresponding monetary system, so there were at least 860 circulating coins in the country.
The Swiss federal governments sought to end this complication with a new Federal Constitution of 1848, which specified that only the federal government could produce and issue money. Two years later the first Federal Coinage Act made the franc the official monetary unit for Switzerland. The franc would replace any other currency used by the various cantons. The term “Helvetia” resurfaced as a name for the franc, recalling the country’s ancient origins.
All eyes are on the Fed and its next anticipated round of QE. Most experts agree that some form of QE will be launched at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of its policy-making committee next Wednesday. It’s now just a question of how many billions worth of assets it will purchase and how much the financial markets have already priced in that QE.

