Not long after the Dia De Los Muertos (the Mexican Day of the Dead), the Banco de Mexico has released the mintage figures for the 2015 Libertads.

Let’s look at the numbers:

2015 Silver 1 oz Proof, mintage 6400. The 1 oz silver Proof breaks the three-year streak of low mintages that started in 2012, with a medium (for Libertad) mintage that is still significantly below the 2011 total of 10,000. This is not true of the fractional silver Proofs, which have been hard to find in the secondary markets.

The 2015 Silver 1/2 oz Proof (mintage 2500), and 2015 Silver 1/4 oz Proof (mintage 2400) look like outliers in that they show up as very low mintages. Many people who weren’t able to obtain the seven-coin Magnificent Seven set and looked to make up the set by picking them up from other markets were disappointed by this scarcity. When you factor in the 250 seven-coin sets and 1000 five-coin box sets, you get a true sense of how few of these are floating around.

The 2015 Silver 1/10 oz Proof (mintage 5300) and 2015 Silver 1/20 oz Proof (mintage 5500) are more readily available. For the gold Proofs, the sets came in at 500—a little more than the 250 of 2014 or the 350 of 2013, but still very, very low.

For the silver bullion, the numbers came in at 903,000 for 1 oz silver, a high number that more than doubles the 2014 number of 429,200. Perhaps it had to do with the new silver procedures put in place by the Mexican Mint last year holding up last year’s number, but the Mexican Mint joins the U.S. Mint in seeing robust demand for silver in 2015.

Silver fractional BU coins were 16,000 (1/2 oz), 17,900 (1/4 oz), 19,900 (1/10 oz), and 18,400 (1/20 oz); these numbers represent a fairly low number for the 1/2 oz BU, but much higher for other fractional BU coins than in the past few years (in 2014, the 1/20 oz was 5700, for example). Again, dealing with Libertads the phrase “much higher” can also be read as “historically low,” but what else should we expect from a beautiful coin featuring an angry eagle eating an incensed snake on its obverse.

What’s the biggest surprise of the 2015 mintages, other than the reverse Proof sets (500) and Mint boxed three-coin sets with reverse Proofs (1000 mintage)? The gold Uncirculated coins. With a mintage of just 1440, the 1 oz Gold BU coin comes in at its lowest figure since 2008 (and third-lowest ever). The 330 half-ounce gold BU coins mark the third-lowest also, as do the 390 1/4 and 1/20 ounce issues, making them new keys to the series! Yikes!

The 1/10 ounce came in at 1230, which is the fourth-lowest mintage. The kilo coin came in at 800 (doubling the 2014 mintage), and the 5 oz. Proof silver is the fourth-highest mintage, which is interesting. It seems like the Mint may have released a second batch, as they had dried out and became available in two segments.

The 2 oz Proof silvers came in at 1300, tied for second-highest mintage, possibly making amends for the mere 750 that came out last year.

So, in conclusion: Libertads are really beautiful, really shiny, and really hard to find. Eager collectors looking to scoop up deals will need to keep their eyes on secondary markets like, well, eagles hungry for snakes.



