The US Mint sold nearly 75 times more Silver Eagles than Gold Eagles in August, for the 2nd consecutive month!
The Mint sold 74.6 times the amount of silver than gold in July, and 73.5 times the amount of silver than gold in August.
Physical silver sales simply cannot continue to be 75 times gold sales when the natural in-ground mining ratio is now 8-1 (2011 world average).
If these sales trends continue (and we are currently seeing even more extreme silver/gold sales ratios at SD Bullion), eventually the free market supply and demand fundamentals will see silver EXPLODE IN VALUE RELATIVE TO GOLD.
The Mint’s sales totals are in line with what we have experienced at SD Bullion over the past month, as silver sales volume is markedly increased across all products since silver cleared $28 to the upside bringing some life and hope back to silver investors.
Look for the Mint’s silver eagle sales to continue to pick up as this next bull rally continues. We expect the Mint’s 2013 sales to likely surpass the 40 million ounces sold in 2011 and set a new record.
| Month | One ( oz. / #coins ) |
|---|---|
| January | 6,107,000 6,107,000 |
| February | 1,490,000 1,490,000 |
| March | 2,542,000 2,542,000 |
| April | 1,520,000 1,520,000 |
| May | 2,875,000 2,875,000 |
| June | 2,858,000 2,858,000 |
| July | 2,278,000 2,278,000 |
| August | 2,870,000 2,870,000 |
| September | 375,000 375,000 |
| Total | 22,915,000 22,915,000 |
Gold
| Month | One ( oz. / #coins ) |
Half ( oz. / #coins ) |
Quarter ( oz. / #coins ) |
Tenth ( oz. / #coins ) |
Total ( oz. / #coins ) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 84,500 84,500 |
24,500 49,000 |
9,500 38,000 |
8,500 85,000 |
127,000 256,500 |
| February | 20,000 20,000 |
0 0 |
500 2,000 |
500 5,000 |
21,000 27,000 |
| March | 57,500 57,500 |
1,000 2,000 |
0 0 |
4,000 40,000 |
62,500 99,500 |
| April | 19,000 19,000 |
0 0 |
500 2,000 |
500 5,000 |
20,000 26,000 |
| May | 49,000 49,000 |
1,500 3,000 |
1,000 4,000 |
1,500 15,000 |
53,000 71,000 |
| June | 55,000 55,000 |
1,000 2,000 |
1,500 6,000 |
2,500 25,000 |
60,000 88,000 |
| July | 28,500 28,500 |
0 0 |
500 2,000 |
1,500 15,000 |
30,500 45,500 |
| August | 34,000 34,000 |
1,500 3,000 |
1,000 4,000 |
2,500 25,000 |
39,000 66,000 |
| September | 6,000 6,000 |
0 0 |
0 0 |
500 5,000 |
6,500 11,000 |
| Total | 353,500 353,500 |
29,500 59,000 |
14,500 58,000 |
22,000 220,000 |
419,500 690,500 |
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I propose the following contest: What will be the price of silver when Morgan Stanley declares bankrupcy?
How about this as an alternative? What will be the price of silver when JP Morgan’s silver short derivatives blow up in their faces and bankrupt them?
This is a trend that will only accelerate.
In europe, the bullion dealers I frequent (websites more than purchases), I am noticing their offerings are diminishing. The store that had Dragon and Kookaburra kg coins in stock all summer through, unlisted them> another, lists all as out of stock, with an outdated price next to it. Premiums are all over the place for common 1oz coins. One day Moose are expensive, the other the go for Maple pricing pretty much. Moose and Puma even differ relatively, daily.
A dealer that yesterday still offered junk silver in kg bags, took them off the website. All they have left is a generic silver medals and a long list of gold coins. Would dealers have performed too many gold for silver swaps for customers? I advised a forumer to swap a gold coin not long ago, and he’s timed that well with the recent decline in the gold/silver ratio.
I can see the signs of imminent shortages…or am I just seeing things?
Wow- the differential is so huge this low $30s business cannot continue. It will blow up-
They had better let it run a little, or it is going to go parabolic to a GSR of 30/1.. about $57.
Which would slow the demand and balance things out until the next black swan shows up.
Conax–totally agree, I am wondering if they are out of metal in London. Let us not forget that the true price should be at least $150.00 if not higher, although the suppression scheme has been running so long that no one even knows. All these folks saying yesterday was a “normal” correction, I say “bullshit”. There is nothing normal about the silver market, it is a total painted tape, an attempt at price control. When true market forces hit it should rocket 400-500% just to get back to some semblance of reality. I cannot see why the morgue does not at least let it run to $60 to ease the pressure.
croc, the price of silver has been manipulated by computer trading for almost 40 years. Plus, the silver price has been monkeyed with well over 100 years. When this cat gets out of the bag we are all going to be surprised at where the silver price will head. Obiously—WAY UP!
Another facet to the silver story is this… small buyers can find plenty of silver to buy immediately while large buyers cannot. I’ve seen a number of stories about people / companies that wanted to buy a million ounces of silver and had to wait several weeks to get it. When they did, it was ALL brand new bars. Silver is a lot tighter than most people suspect based on their small purchases. It is the large purchases that show the cracks in the dam.
This constant volume in silver just continues to tighten the noose around the derivatives traders who will find themselves with certificates of silver yet unable to purchase the physical.
I am seeing rices on 90% junk over spot now where I used to be able to find it just under or at spot. Supplies are getting tight for the small buyer too unless you want to pay over spot.
It is getting harder for me to find silver at a good price at local coin shops. I can’t find 1 ounce silver bars and coins anymore cause they’re getting purchased very fast by other buyers. My only choice left is to buy junk silver and they are 3% over spot but even those are getting harder to find.
I never saw the point of 1oz bars. They tend to return fewer ounces for my Euro’s.
To get some structure in my random demonetized (I prefer that over “junk”) silver purchases, I walked into the local stamps/coins store. Yes, they had 1oz coins. €34-something. “But not the Maples”, those were a bit more.
Anyway, offerings on the regional web stores for our own demonetized 72% silver is drying up rapidly. In Germany (cheaper) I see several stores scratching 999 inventory, a few products at a time. Good luck finding a kg coin at spot+14% as it used to be until recently. SOMETHING is getting dealers to reduce their offerings. At a time when prices are rising rapidly. Something’s up!
Doc – I couldn’t reply to XC Skater. Maybe it’s not possible to reply to a reply.
XC: Why would dealers reduce their offerings? One reason would be expectations of rising prices. Why sell something at $33 today when you think it will be $35 in a couple of days or $40 in a couple of weeks? Perhaps they are expecting an imminent price explosion.
On the other hand, we may see the death of the LCS soon. If PM’s suddenly get revalued and the death of the dollar goes mainstream, what retail or wholesale PM dealer is going to sell his/her stock for fiat? They’re going to flip their closed signs on and retire in style. There will instead be PM brokers (you heard it here first) but the traditional wholesale/retail model will be dead.
@Silver Alert:
I would not see why they’d keep the 1oz coins up, and even sell them at their best price for 1 each, but take off the kilo coins when in stock. Same effort, handling an order line for 1oz or 1kg.
In Europe, I think dealers are largely selling from their wholesaler’s stock. When I bought in May, I had to wait quite a bit for a rather basic order. I got my phyzz all in good order at the price I agreed to, but I do think it had to come from wholesale.
If the wholesaler has the stock, the dealer has no reason NOT to sell it, I suppose. Their profit is always a fixed (percentile) of the sales price. I am suspecting wholesalers are running out. My 2 favorite bullion dealers in Germany are OUT of kg coins. They used to have a nice assortment between them, not even overlapping. So, sourcing from different wholesalers I’d suspect. They 1oz offerings were also greatly different.
When I got back into the phyz game in May, I also grabbed mostly the kg coins. Not entirely sure why. I suppose I though I’d get more in return at the melters than for 32.15x1oz. Now, I wish I’d taken a spread of 1oz and 2oz coins, with more change to gain premium.
New buyers may have followed my logic and emptied shelfs. KG coins over here at taxed less harsly (VAT hurts!), bars are less attractive for that reason.
I buy about 1 old silver coin per day in the classifieds. I seem to see new buyers showing up in the bidding. I had a bid in on a Peace Dollar, a low bid, and the next person added just €0,01 to mine. Inexperienced bidder.
Something is happening. I cannot say this with certainty, as it may well be wishful thinking, or a temporary situation until the next smackdown.
To me it seems dealers are starting to eitherr say no to easy money, or wholesalers are out of stock.