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The end of the year is approaching...

CiccioCiccio Posts: 1,405 ✭
in Precious Metals
...and I am curious if anyone recalls (and wants to share) how the PM market reacted on Dec.1999 in preparation of the expected end of the world (also called Y2K!)
PMs have always played important roles during major events but I checked the charts and didn't find anything crazy.

How were the feelings back there?

Comments

  • gsa1fangsa1fan Posts: 5,566 ✭✭✭
    Funny, but most AGE's 1oz. I buy are 1999's. They must sold a bunch that year.
    Avid collector of GSA's.
  • jmski52jmski52 Posts: 22,904 ✭✭✭✭✭
    1999 had the highest mintages for the 1/10th oz. and 1 oz. AGEs, and had the second highest mintages for the 1/4 oz. and 1/2 oz. AGEs. There was a fair amount of gold buying in 1999 over trepidation about Y2K, but it didn't quite reach panic levels.
    Q: Are You Printing Money? Bernanke: Not Literally

    I knew it would happen.
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,245 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The panic buying started around August of 1998 and ended around August of 1999 because nobody wanted to wait until the last minute to get loaded up.

    Product was so hard to get that we were selling Belgian 20 francs and Colombian 5 pesos and other products that people normally turned their noses up at, and in quantities. One church group that we supplied had its members lay in a year's supply of dried food and bottled water, plus gold and silver. Their pastor used to order everything for the flock, and a typical call might be for 5,000 sovereigns, or 8,000 20 francs!

    We would get on the phone and see what we could get, and then sell it, and when bags came in from our suppliers we would run gold coins through our coin counter. It was sacrilege, but who had time to count it by hand?

    As noted above sales of 1998 and 1999 gold and silver eagles set new records, only recently broken. Of course, when the nothing happened much of this came back on the market, which is why eagle sales for 2000 and 2001 plumetted. Look them up.

    TD
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 32,245 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Oh, yeah. During the Mint's heavy production of 1999 eagles they let slip through the two errors, the 1999-W 1/10th and 1/4 ounce pieces with mint marks. This happened when dies intended for the Proof coinage ended up in the business strike production line without ever being "proofed." Some people think it was intentional, but I don't know. I think it was probably just a legitimate mistake.

    There is also the possibility that they made an Uncirculated 1999-W one ounce eagle. Somebody I have know for a long time swears that he saw one, but the owner would not sell it. Check your 1999 one ounce coins for a W.

    TD
    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • CiccioCiccio Posts: 1,405 ✭
    Thank you Capt! It is always a pleasure reading your real-life stories.
  • DarinDarin Posts: 7,211 ✭✭✭✭✭
    August of 1999 was the only time in my life I ever bought call options on gold. I was convinced gold would go up because of Y2K, it did go up and I made $23,000 profit on my options, selling them at almost the high a couple months later.
    But the funny thing was, gold didn't go up because of Y2K, as I recall there was some announcement by European central banks that they weren't going to sell as much gold as they normally did, and the price spiked for a while.
    Hope this is fairly accurate, because its all from my memory, which may or may not be faulty. image
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