Gold Mint Runs Overtime in Race to Meet World Coin Demand

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Austria's mint is running 24 hours a day as global mints from the U.S. to Australia report climbing demand for gold coins even while Goldman Sachs Group Inc. says this year's price rebound will end.
Austria's Muenze Oesterreich AG mint hired extra employees and added a third eight-hour shift to the day in a bid to keep up with demand. Purchases of bullion coins at Australia's Perth Mint rose 20 percent this year through Jan. 20 from a year earlier. Sales by the U.S. Mint are set for the best month since April, when the metal plunged into a bear market.
Global mints are manufacturing as fast as they can after a 28 percent drop in gold prices last year, the biggest slump since 1981, attracted buyers of physical metal. The demand gains helped bullion rally for five straight weeks, the longest streak since September 2012. That won't be enough to stem the metal's slump according to Morgan Stanley, while Goldman Sachs Group predicts bullion will "grind lower" over 2014.

The U.K.'s Royal Mint, which traces its history back more than 1,000 years, ran out of 2014 Sovereign gold coins because of "exceptional demand," it said in a statement on Jan. 8. Coins weren't available to customers until six days later when inventories were replenished. Sales by the Perth Mint, which also has workers producing coins in three shifts a day, will probably beat last year's record, Ron Currie, the marketing director, said Jan. 20.

The U.S. Mint, the world's largest, sold 89,500 ounces so far this month. The Austrian mint that makes Philharmonic coins, saw sales jump 36 percent last year and expects "good business" for the next couple of months, Andrea Lang, the marketing and sales director of Austria's Muenze Oesterreich AG, said in an e-mail.
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The US mint at 89,500 ounces is just less than three tons. Extrapolate that over a year, then include all the other mints and we have a few hundred tons of gold going to the "small investors". I wonder how much of these single ounces find their way to China and India?

Loving this bull market at bear prices!
 
Some people say the premiums on bullion are a sign of low supply.... not true

Its a sign of how fast (or slow) larger denominations of bullion can be processed into lower denominations and sent into the retail market.

Its like saying higher petrol prices means crude is in low supply - that not always true, we may only have one refinery operational so there can be an excess of crude but not enough refining capacity.

This means low crude prices (lots of it around) but higher premium for refined petrol.

If you are a bull don't buy gold at a price where you want it to be in the future, look for bullion that is at a reasonable premium to the price NOW. That might still mean you pay a premium, but don't let sellers (who always want to sell higher) get away with extortion, always shop around
 
Premiums on Gold seem to be about the same as they've been for the past several years. Silver premiums seems to be pretty cheap at the moment; and hope this run on physical gold doesn't push silver premiums up.
 
"Sales by the U.S. Mint are set for the best month since April, when the metal plunged into a bear market."
That's a bogus argument, because january includes a part december sales.
We are near end january, 89,500 AGE's. April 2013 had 209,500 and January 2013 had 150,000.
Same story for the Buffalo's: this month so far 39,500. January 2013 had 72,500.
So lol, where is that overtime running to meet coin demand?
This months sales are 60% of those a year ago.
 
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