STEVE INSKEEP, Host: People looking for a safe investment are putting their money into gold. But so many people were doing it that the U.S. mint ran out of certain gold coins. And it doesn't plan to make any more of them this year. NPR's Libby Lewis has this report.</s>LIBBY LEWIS: Rich Stelfox is an owner of Golden Eagle Coins in Laurel, Maryland. It's one of the largest and oldest dealers in the country. In the past few weeks, his business has been taking hundreds of calls about gold bullion, more since the U.S. mint ran out of half-ounce and quarter-ounce gold coins, and some silver ones too. Stelfox said some of his customers are old investors, but some of them have never bought gold before in their lives.</s>RICH STELFOX: If you have never ever bought gold or silver, and you say, well, the only thing I know about it is the American Gold Eagles, and what do mean you don't have any?</s>LIBBY LEWIS: Other buyers, he says, will ask, well, what's popular anywhere in the world?</s>RICH STELFOX: That's the main thing. They want to know they can - if they're going to buy something, they can go anywhere that it's going to be recognized, and they'll be able to, you know, cash it in.</s>LIBBY LEWIS: There are lots of options for gold buyers who can handle a hugely volatile market.</s>RICH STELFOX: You know, Suisse Credit bars, Canadian Maple Leafs, Chinese Pandas.</s>LIBBY LEWIS: Stelfox is a little concerned about the holidays.</s>RICH STELFOX: So when they come in and say, look, every year, I give Christmas time this year a Silver Eagle, what do you have? Well, I'm sorry. We don't have any.</s>LIBBY LEWIS: He's hoping that's not the scenario in December. Libby Lewis, NPR News.
With the stock market in decline, the demand for gold has been huge. However, the U.S. Mint has run out of some of its popular gold bullion coins, and it won't make any more of them this year. That has left buyers and sellers on their own kind of roller-coaster.