The year is nearly three-quarters completed and collectors are starting to give the Mint Stats page in Numismatic News a closer look to find out what current offerings might end up with low mintages.

I have had several telephone calls in recent days inquiring about the proof and uncirculated “W” collector versions of the Buffalo gold coins. The 1,108 sales total for the gold half-ounce proof Buffalo published in the Sept. 30 issue seems particularly enticing as far as coins that are currently being sold go. Even when you add in the numbers for the four-coin set, it still has a fairly low combined total of 6,721.

The truly low numbers are for the “W” collector proof and uncirculated platinum American Eagles. The half-ounce coin there stands at 126. But coins have not been available from the Mint for many weeks.

Will any others be struck this year?

Good question.

We all would like to know the answer.

The Mint has had difficulty with these coins because the market price of platinum bullion is fluctuating so widely that it hasn’t been able to keep coins on the market. The legal requirements for repricing slows the process down and the result has been no sales.

It might be logical to assume that sales of these platinum Eagles have been halted because the Mint is trying to keep up with demand for the basic bullion version of the coins. However, the bullion platinum Eagles are all still available and not on any kind of suspension or allocation arrangement.

The silver proof American Eagle is currently off sale as the Mint is diverting the blank supply to the basic bullion coin. Hobbyists are wondering if any more will be struck this year or whether the 712,207 current sales total will be it.

Some online auction buyers seem to be betting that we’ll see no more from the Mint this year and the sales figure is the equivalent to the year’s final mintage figure. We’ll see.

Watching mintage figures as the year nears its end is a time-honored hobby practice. The unsettled conditions in the financial markets are perhaps starting this seasonal exercise early this year.

I had a conversation with Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma yesterday for Coin Chat Radio about his proposal for a half dime coin to replace the nickel.

His is a logic-driven argument in favor of the coin. It will be half the weight of the dime and cost less than face value to produce with its standard copper-nickel clad alloy that is already used in the dime, quarter and half dollar.

It is too early in the cycle to know what the vending machine industry thinks of this or what the Mint thinks. However, he says that he has talked with House Banking Committee Chairman Barney Frank about it. Frank has promised him hearings next year at the subcommittee level. It would be expected that the vending machine industry and the Mint would have prominent seats at the witness table.

Lucas admits he doesn’t really know how even his own constituents will react to such a coin, but for coin collectors, it opens the door to all sorts of wonderful conversations.

I had lunch with Fred Borgmann, a former colleague here at Krause, and his wife yesterday at the Crystal Cafe (where else?) and one of the topics of conversation was the half dime proposal.

Fred couldn’t see it. He thought a thorough reform of U.S. coin sizes was more logical. Simply to insert a smaller half dime into the mix would make two current coins smaller than the cent. He said if the cent were abolished, he supposed it would be OK, but he wasn’t enthusiastic about that course of action.

I imagine there will be all sorts of conversations like mine among collectors as this process unfolds. Inertia is always strong and if I had to place a bet on the outcome, I would bet on a nickel-plated steel coin of the same diameter of the current nickel. I took this position during a talk to the Sarasota Coin Club at the beginning of 2007.

With hearings sometime next year, there will be plenty of time for all sorts of ideas to be thrown into the mix.