American 1oz Silver Eagles are minted in spectacular numbers -- nearly two hundred million (200,000,000) over the past 5 years alone. Ultimately, what's going to happen to all these ASEs? What will people do with them besides hoarding them for the end-times? Will they remain buried in end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it caches? Or could there come a time when they'd flood the market? I imagine if society suddenly collapsed, the archaeologists and treasure-hunters of some distant future generation would be digging up caches of ASEs and wondering WTF was happening back in the 21st century.
Haha, interesting thoughts. Big numbers but it's less than 1 per head of population in the US and a lot are exported. Who knows... depends what you mean by the "End of the world". There was a doco, here I found it... [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUqHECc5rPo[/youtube]
Not such a big number of silver coins when you factor in population numbers! I am a new to silver and not American and I already have 61 ase,s! 2 complete start to date collections and a few silly painted 911 ones. The price of ase,s allow people in uSA to collect a meaningful coin without breaking the bank! its a "silver dollar" and its "silver", its "theirs" everyone else wants them as well to help live the american dream they got bombarded with via TV and Hollywood.
That's less than 1 per person in the USA alone. Or to give another perspective, Apple has sold more than twice as many iPhones in the past 5 years
Original question: Ultimately, what's going to happen to all these ASEs? What will people do with them? Answers so far... I like your thinking. Both fascinating and existentially troubling at the same time. On galactic timescales, all our accomplishments will be gone in the blink of an eye. After a brief flash of brightness, human civilization will be extinguished and our struggles will have come to nothing. Not even the dust of our bones will remain. Not such a big number compared to atoms in the universe either. So someone's going to miss out on their complimentary ASE? That's sad. I'll remember that next time I need to fill an olympic size pool with ASEs. Ok, thanks for clearing up the original question
Yeah---it's interesting to wonder what'll happen to the best-selling, most popular low-premium silver bullion coin in the world today. Who knows? Maybe it'll just continue to be just that...
That might happen, so be sure to let us know when they show up in the machines at your favorite arcades.
SilverPete, There were some bizarre responses to your question as you made light of; mine on the other hand was intended to be humorous of course. To honestly answer your question, I would think that many or most of those ASE's will some day come out of the vaults, SDB, safe's, and shoeboxes where the small percentage of the population who owns ASE's people keep them in....and into the marketplace....just not most at the same time because not everyone (especially not stackers) have a unified notion of when the best time is to cash in silver blobs for money or for something far more useful than silver (like food or whatever). You may have a small flood of ASE's (and a whole lot of other various silver products) at some critical point but the price for silver may drop significantly and quickly due to this and those who didn't catch the shooting star early enough will likely hold until a better time to cash in is at hand. .
Just more confirmation why I stick with the low mintage Perth Mint bullion coins that cost just as much as the ASE's where a gazillion are minted every year. No thanks. Keep up the good work Perth Mint. Now if you can offer a life-time guarantee against white spots, that would be even better. ))
Their guarantee for the moment is: "flip them within the first week they are minted and you are guaranteed to be selling a coin with no visible milk spots" Jokes aside, the Perth Mint has an obligation to itself and some level of responsibility to its customers to put an end to the milk spot problems (the bane of modern silver proof coins) with their coins. .
Absolutely correct, but you left out one other major concern. The Saltwater Croc and the FunnelWeb Spider were both distributed in too-wide, too-tall tubes that allowed the coins to be banging around loose and sustaining transit damage. Per information provided to me via email exchange with Perth Mint Sales, their upcoming bullion Kangaroo will be the same dimensions as the Croc and the Spider and it'll also be distributed in the same too-wide, too-tall tubes. WTF? It's a shame that PM can't keep pace with the low-premium silver bullion coin market. Specifically, the US Mint, RCM and Austrian Mint all distribute their low-premium bullion coins (ASEs, Spotted Maples and Phils) in appropriately sized tubes that don't allow the coins to bounce around so freely and get damaged during transit. IMO, PM needs to wake up and smell the coffee. No more excuses about "it's just bullion, so you're never allowed to have ANY expectations". We do have minimal and reasonable expectations---like losing the milk spots and providing appropriately sized tubes! If you can't handle both, then at least go for the one that you can exercise control of---THE TUBES! Unless, of course... you just don't care. But---enough said about all of that, and back to our regularly scheduled programming... All the blah,blahs and yada,yadas about ASEs aside, all the pissing and moaning about the unlovability of the ASE design aside and all the "rah,rah PM and let's hate ASEs forever" crap aside... There's no arguing that the ASE (whatever anybody may care to think or say about it) is the most popular, best-selling silver bullion coin in the world today. The mintage numbers speak for themselves and preclude argument, so chew on that for a while.
So which low mintage Perth Mint bullion coins are you talking about that cost just as much as ASE? Kooks? Spiders? Koala? Definitely not Lunars since those are like $8-10 over spot compared to $3 over spot of ASE. I will take Kooks and Koala over ASE at the same price. But I'll take ASE over Spiders all day long at the same price. I don't understand the ASE hate here. I think ASE is one of the most beautiful coins today. Who cares if the design is the same and they mint millions? It's the most liquid silver in the US. I know I can easily sell ASE in a single day and recover most of the premium. I can't say the same about the Kooks and Lunars I have. It's going to suck trying to sell those on eBay at a future date.
It is not so much anti ASE as it is anti US. There are a few members who dislike the US and anything associated with it. I imagine barsenault is referring to kooks and possibly koalas. Kooks and ASEs cost about the same right now ($4-5 premium). Difference is that the kooks have potential for premium appreciation and ASEs don't. As you mentioned, resale is a huge advantage of ASEs. I have never tried to bulk sell kooks, so I don't know what premium you would get on a quick sale. AEL Steve or goldpelican could probably answer that question.
AT LAST--somebody who can comprehend something beyond what's the prettiest Bubble Popularity Coin DuJour! The ASE isn't meant to win any Coin Of The Year Beauty Contest(s). It's a stacker's coin and mostly intended for domestic US consumption. Anybody who's ever so terminally displeased by it should exercise their freedom to not buy it.
