The U.S. Mint recently crossed the 60,000 threshold for sales of the 2009 Ultra High Relief coins.

This mark was reached despite the price increase on the coins earlier this month. On May 4, the spot price of gold jumped to over $900 an ounce, per U.S. Mint's new pricing structure which included a $50 price increase per coin. The new price (as I am writing this piece) is now $1,289 each.

When the coins were originally released, the coins in the original packaging were priced extremely high with after-market prices between $1,500 and $1,700. A couple factors contributed to the high premiums for these coins. The Mint placed an order restriction, allowing only one coin per household to be purchased, which was a huge limit for some collectors. There was also a delay in shipping which created an urgency to get these coins in-hand as soon as possible. As a result, dealers and collectors were willing to pay much higher premiums to obtain these beautiful coins.

As of this writing, the coin prices have come down a bit, now selling for $1,300 to $1,500 for coins in the original packaging. Some coins will actually sell for a higher premium if they were part of the first coins to be released. These coins can still be purchased directly from the U.S. Mint.

The 2009 Ultra High Relief coins will only be sold for the year 2009. These coins were produced to resurrect what is believed to be the most beautiful design in American coinage or the Saint Gaudens Liberty design.