If there’s one thing investors and collectors of precious metals know, it’s that nothing happens in a vacuum in this world. The Perth Mint might exist a whole world away from the United States, but the tumult of that country’s presidential election has reaped benefits for other mints as precious metal prices ebbed and flowed throughout October 2016. The result for the Perth Mint was strong gains for some programs, and staggering gains for others. Below is a rundown of action at the Perth Mint last month.
Overview of the Action
Perth Mint gold sales jumped to their highest levels in nearly 3 ½ years in October, as silver sales from the mint moved above the 1 million ounce mark for the seventh month this year. Sinking precious metal prices and the release of 2017 issue coins helped sustain growth at the Perth Mint, despite LBMA prices for both silver and gold losing value in October. Gold sunk 3.8% and silver dropped 8.2%.
While the US Mint bullion sales strengthened in October and early November, and posted gains over October 2015, the Perth Mint saw its totals split across the metals. Gold sales were up from October 2015, while silver sales were down.
Perth Mint Bullion Sales in October
The Perth Mint saw its gold coins and bars move 79,048 ounces in October, which represents a gain of 34.4% from September and an increase of 18.1% from October 2015. That also represented the biggest single-month increase in sales since May 2013, when 88,638 ounces of gold bullion was sold by Perth.
So far through October 2016, sales of gold bullion at Perth Mint have reached 402,128 ounces, surpassing 2015’s 10-month total of 383,870 ounces by 4.8%. The signs for silver bullion at Perth Mint were mixed though, with monthly sales up over September by October sales down year-over-year.
The Perth Mint moved 1,084,213 ounces of silver bullion in October 2016, up 5.1% from September 2016, but down 38.1% from the 1.75 million ounces delivered in October 2015. Perth Mint has now registered monthly silver bullion sales in excess of 1 million ounces in seven of 10 months to date in 2016, failing to hit the mark in May, July, and August. On a bright note, silver bullion sales for the year are up 15.5% to date over 2015, with a 10.822 million ounces sold compared to 9.366 million ounces for the same period in 2015.
Year-over-Year Recap
Going back to October 2015, gold and silver bullion coin sales at the Perth Mint have run different courses. Gold bullion sales had their best figures in September and October 2016 over the past year. Sales figures for gold sank every month from April to September, with the exception of a blip in June in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote. Growth from August into September and September into October marks consecutive increase for the first time since November 2015 to January 2016.
Silver has, by in large, tread a more consistent path. As mentioned above, May, July and August 2016 all marked sub-1 million sales months for the Perth Mint’s silver bullion coin programs. However, prior to May, sales figures held steady each month from October 2015 to April 2016 between 1.049 million ounces and 1.756 million ounces. The growth in sales of silver bullion coins from August-September and September-October marks the first months of consecutive sales growth since February-March 2016.
