New platinum coins on sale August 12


It’s August, and that means it’s time for harvesting the corn and buying our platinum.  On August 12 at high noon (Eastern Daylight time), The one ounce proof platinum coins will go on sale (online at usmint.gov).  The 2010 platinum coin is the second in the preamble series and has the theme “to establish justice.”  The price of the coin is based on the price of platinum.  At the time of this composition, platinum is at $1555 an ounce.  Based on the mint’s sliding price scale, the proof platinum coin would sell for $1892, representing a $337 premium over the price of the metal. Because of the mint’s binning method, this price will hold if platinum is between $1550 and $1649.99.  Should platinum go down a mere $6 to $1549, the $100 proof coin would sell for $1792.
It could be worthwhile to wait, except that the coin could sell out.  The 2009 coin was limited to 8,000 and sold out within days.  They currently trade on ebay for about $2500.    The 2010 coin will have a mintage of 10,000, essentially guaranteeing that’s its value will be somewhat under that of its 2009 counterpart.