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Authorized Purchasers Hit Bull’s Eye With the Debut of American Eagle Palladium Bullion Coins

2017-09-19 Tue

Good news for authorized purchasers, the first American Eagle palladium bullion coins will be offered for sale on 25th September by the U.S. Mint.

The number of 1-ounce .9995 palladium $25 face value coins offered will be limited, but that limit is not yet disclosed. Extra coins will not be struck once the inaugural mintage of the 2017 coins is sold. U.S Mint will sell the American Eagle palladium bullion coins to authorized purchasers on all allocation basis. The coins will be sold to the authorized purchasers at a 6.25 percent premium over the prevailing price of palladium.

The Mint doesn’t make the bullion coins public but sells the coins to its authorized purchasers or approved buyers, for the closing London PM spot price of the metal per troy ounce plus a small premium. The coins are then made available to other customers such as collectors, dealers, and investors.

According to Acting Principal Deputy Mint Director David Motl, the palladium bullion coins will be struck at the Philadelphia Mint and, like all American Eagle bullion coins, will not exhibit the Mint mark of the production facility where the coins are struck. A Proof version of the coin will be offered in 2018. It will be struck at the West Point Mint and bear the W Mint mark. It will have same designs as the 2017 bullion version.

The palladium coins were authorized under provisions of Public Law 111-303, the American Eagle Palladium Bullion Coin Act of 2010, which calls for production of a 1-ounce .9995 fine palladium coin with a $25 face value. The coin is an extension of the American Eagle bullion coin program.

The legislation mandates the obverse design be a high-relief version of sculptor Adolph A. Weinman’s Winged Liberty Head design for the dime struck in 1916. The reverse is mandated to be a high-relief version of the Eagle design Weinman rendered in 1906 for the reverse of the American Institute of Architects’ gold medal first presented in 1907.

PAMP provided the planchets for the palladium bullion coins. The enabling act requires the “purchase of palladium mined from natural deposits in the United States, or in a territory or possession of the United States”.

The Treasury secretary has the power to seek palladium elsewhere if mined palladium is not available or there is a financial constraint. The only domestic mining concern within the confines of the United States, its territories or possessions yielding palladium is the Stillwater Mining Company.