If the continuing depression in precious metal prices has a silver lining, it is the enormous surge in demand world-wide for silver. With most mints & brokers experiencing higher than expected demand for silver coins, many are having to set weekly sales quotas after record coin sales.
According to Nicholson, Ananthalakshmi and Harvey, reporting for Reuters yesterday, this rapid surge in demand for silver is due to unprecedented interest in coins from ‘mom & pop’ buyers in the US. “Dealers and mints trace the supply squeeze to a burst of buying by mom-and-pop investors in the United States, who scrambled to scoop up coins they considered to be at bargain levels after spot silver prices in early July sank to six-year lows.”
In addition, there is a perceived shortage in the market of silver coin supply which, according to a Perth Mint spokesperson, “is in fact a (crunch in) manufacturing capacity.”
With North American mints overwhelmed by orders, investors and collectors were forced to look overseas for increasingly scarce supplies, triggering a domino effect in Europe and Asia.
Read the full article: Silver-coin shortage shows bright side of precious metal collapse
See also our recent blog on “Premiums Rise and Delivery Delays Increase on Silver Bullion Coins” for further analysis.
DAILY PRICES
Today’s Gold Prices: USD 1106.30, EUR 990.86 and GBP 730.21 per ounce. Yesterday’s Gold Prices: USD 1114.20, EUR 998.66 and GBP 735.69 per ounce. (LBMA AM)
Gold closed at $1114.30 down again by $1.70 on the day. Silver slipped to as low as $14.476 but ultimately gained $0.02 overall, closing at $14.56. As reported previously, the Perth Mint sold a record amount of silver coins in September – more than 3.53 million ounces – according to Reuters. This is about five times higher than the mint’s August sales.
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