American Gold Buffalo Coins
The .9999 fine Gold Buffalo is the US Mint’s only pure gold bullion coin and it comes in only one size : 1-oz. The Gold Buffalo carries a legal tender value of $50, which is meaningless because the coin sells for the value of its gold content.
Like the 1-oz Gold Eagle coins, Gold Buffaloes come twenty coins to a tube. The coin is popular because it carries the famed Buffalo-Indian Head design that graced the American nickel 1913-1938.
Although Gold Buffalo Coins carry the popular Indian Head/Buffalo design, Gold Eagles and Krugerrands remain the two best-selling gold bullion coins in the world, making them the most recognizable and the easiest to re-sell.
Because these coins carry the famed Buffalo-Indian Head design that graced the American nickel 1913-1934, they are as much identified with American coinage as is the Walking Liberty that graced the popular Walking Liberty half-dollars, which were minted 1916-1947.
American Gold Buffalo Coins carry the same premiums as the US Mint’s 22-karat Gold Eagles, the world’s best-selling gold bullion coins.
While the Mint produces four sizes of American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins, 1-oz,1/2-oz, 1/4-oz and 1/10-oz, American Gold Buffalo Coins are available in only one size: 1-oz.
American Buffalo Gold Coins sales
American Gold Buffalo Coins are magnificent coins and were a huge success when released in 2006. However, primarily because of their packaging (originally, they were packaged in sheets of Mylar), investor interest in the coins waned since their introduction.
Although Gold Buffalo Coins enjoy good sales, investors wanting strictly a gold investment should consider going with Gold Eagles or other low-premium gold bullion coins.
Buffalo Gold Coins enjoyed their best sales their first year, 2006. In only seven months in 2006, the Mint sold 323,000 coins. By comparison, the Mint sold only 201,500 one-ounce Gold Eagles, the world’s best selling gold bullion coins, for all 2006.
Gold Buffalo Coins highly promoted
With the Buffalo-Indian Head design being used on an American coin for the first time in seventy-two years, telemarketers jumped all over the coins. Most of the 2006-dated coins were sent to grading services where they were “slabbed,” as putting a graded coin in a plastic holder is called. Then the telemarketers promoted, at huge markups, the “slabbed” American Gold Buffalos as First Strike Coins.
Immediately following the coin’s release, telemarketers sold MS69 First Strike Gold Buffalo Coins at hundreds of dollars above the market for bullion coins. The MS70 First Strike Gold Buffalo Coins were hawked at $1500 premiums. Fortunately for investors, the promotions at those prices did not last long because many more Gold Buffalo Coins were slabbed than the telemarketers could sell. Premiums collapsed on slabbed Gold Buffalos as dealers cut prices drastically to recapture their investments.
In September 2006, shortly after the Gold Buffalos were released, we posted an expose of First Strike coins on this site, titled First Strike Coins or Strikeout Coins? We think that the article was one of the major reasons that today First Strike coins are now called Early Release coins, which the telemarketers now promote.
Buying Gold Buffalo Coins
If you would like to discuss the American Buffalo Gold Coins or any aspect of gold investing, call us at 800-528-1380. We take calls 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. MST Mondays through Thursdays, Fridays 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. More information about buying and selling gold and silver can be found on our Doing Business With CMIGS page.
Investors wanting gold bullion coins at still lower prices may find suitable coins on our Gold Specials Page. Further, investors interested in silver may find suitable products available on our Silver Specials Page.