With demand for the one-ounce silver and gold American Eagles running so heavy, it is probably a good idea to pause and look at the numbers sold so far in 2008 as supplied by the U.S. Mint.

The silver American Eagle has passed through the 12-million mark at 12,125,000 here near the end of August. The Mint is ramping up to produce nearly two million a month more. That would put total sales over 20 million pieces, which would be nearly double any top total from prior years. Will the Mint hit that total? It all depends on its privately produced supply of blanks.

Naturally, because gold is more valuable, the totals for one-ounce gold American Eagles is lower. It is currently 307,500, but here too production is being ramped up. So far in August, the total produced is 80,000 pieces.

Even maintaining that pace would still bring the annual total to hardly more than 600,000 pieces. Here, too, the supply of blanks is a critical factor.

That would be a reasonably high number compared to most past years, but in 1986, 1987, 1998 and 1999 the annual total was well over 1 million, with the 1999 holding the top production spot of 1.5 million. Remember Y2K demand?

Production for gold fractional Eagles is much lower, but then so is demand. The Mint says it has a supply on hand, unlike the situation for the one-ounce coin.

Half-ounce total is 20,000, quarter ounce is 24,000 and tenth ounce is 95,000.

Buffalo one-ounce coin production stands at 109,500 pieces so far this year. Supply here has so far been adequate.

With platinum, numbers are really tiny, but that has been true in past years as well.

The one-ounce Eagle stands at 1,200, the half ounce at 2,200, the quarter ounce at 4,400 and the tenth ounce at 5,000.

Now let’s see what happens over the next four months.

What a difference a year makes. Today the First Spouse gold coins for Andrew Jackson will become available to collectors.

I imagine the commencement of sales at noon Eastern time today on the Mint Web site will cause very little fuss or bother. How unlike the case when the Thomas Jefferson was offered a year ago.

Jefferson happened to be the third and last First Spouse gold coins to sellout quickly. In fact, they were the last First Spouse coins to sell out at all.

Once the novelty wears off, so does buyer interest apparently. Does this mean the Mint is offering the numismatic equivalent of the hoola hoop? Hot one minute and then forever on the margin, fondly recalled by those who remember the fad?

Could be.

Legislation for the National Parks quarter series includes provisions to make versions of the designs in five-ounce sizes three inches in diameter. Colin Bruce of the Standard Catalog of World Coins staff called these large “coins” hockey pucks many years ago.

Another piece of legislation calling for civil rights quarters has exactly the same provision for a three-inch, five-ounce silver version. How much further can the U.S. Mint take novelty in numismatics?

I am sure we will eventually find out, but we collectors may not like the answer.

Perhaps there will even be a U.S. coin for the hoola hoop. How about that?

When you ask a stupid question, you know what happens.

When Numismatic News went to press with the Aug. 26 issue, it featured a story on Page 4 about protesters in Denver hoping to levitate the Denver Mint during the last week of August.

I thought it was funny. I thought it a good idea to ask in our weekly poll question whether the protesters would levitate the mint.

Well, 36 percent said yes.

That might worry me if I thought the repondents were serious. I am assuming they thought the topic was just as silly as I did and were giving me as much of a silly answer as I was asking a silly question.

The written responses that followed up in the Sept. 2 issue were sparse. Usually we get so many answers we cannot run them all in the space we have. That was not the case with this poll question.

Just in case you missed the news, the protesters did not succeed in levitating the mint.

If my theory on this poll question is incorrect, then we are all in trouble.

No, the fight isn’t always about how to spend money, but about what the nature of money itself is. That historical idea came to mind when I was at the American Numismatic Association convention. I talked to all sorts of people about all sorts of topics.

One fellow I have known for years wanted to talk about the gold standard. He almost seemed to want to fight about it. He declared paper money was unconstitutional. He cited what he said was the constitutional language that says only gold and silver are legal tender.

I couldn’t resist pointing out to him that the Supreme Court said that paper money was legal in 1870. That court case was a whopper. It was also historically interesting for people who like to know the rest of the story.

The founder of the modern American system of paper money was Salmon P. Chase. He was the Treasury secretary for Abraham Lincoln and the North. He was desperate for money. Like the South, he was forced to issue unbacked paper money called Demand Notes to finance the war.

Chase was nothing if not creative. Not only did he issue Demand Notes, but he figured out a new way of war financing that ran circles around anything ever done by the United States before. He created the National Banking System. Chartered national banks could issue their own paper money, but it had to be backed by federal government bonds. What were these bonds? Why they were debt to finance the war.

The new system worked. The North got the money. The North won the war. But in the meantime, Chase was appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. During the Grant administration, a imminent court ruling could declare what Chase had done constitutional or unconstitutional.

Perhaps oddly, Chase was on the side of calling it unconstitutional. Grant leaned the other way. A vacancy on the court was filled with a “sound” paper money man and the decision went 5-4 in favor of paper.

We’ve had it ever since and we’ve been fighting about it ever since as the booth visitor demonstrates.

While certain individuals will be attempting to shake coins out of the Denver Mint on Monday, collectors will have the opportunity to get the new Alaska quarter the regular way. They can order rolls and bags from the U.S. Mint. Granted, it probably isn’t as much fun as levitating a building and shaking it, but getting Alaskan state quarters is still pretty interesting for us collectors.

I like the design. I like the design a lot. The bear grabbing the salmon, or perhaps trout, says it all. Why can’t Wisconsin’s quarter have something that strong on it?

After all, we have bears here. They can be annoying, but they are real. We also have trout.

But we also have cows, cheese and corn here as well, so that is what we got on our coin when it was our turn in 2004.

I have written a number of times that the Wisconsin design was chosen by a vote of the people of the state, so I can’t complain about the design on those grounds.

But then I go and see a really good state quarter design and I am just envious. Nevada was a really good one, too.

Fortunately, I can collect any of the other 49 designs that I want.

But if I want the 49th state, that order period starts Aug. 25. Visit the Mint Web site at www.usmint.gov for details.

If I still had the 49-star flag that I had when I was a kid, I would wave it. It’s Alaska’s turn.