US Mint suspends sales of silver eagles...again!

Is this a shortage? Or just excessive demand? Either way it's a good sign for prices up the road
 
most likely they are waiting for the price to go to $34 USD before they start selling again so they can make more profit
 
I don't have the answer but I suspect it's due to a massive increase in demand.

Many yanks are digging in against their tyrannical government at this point in time.
 
I found another source than Zerohedge:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/us-mint-sells-2013-silver-coin/story?id=18251966
As a result of high investor demand, the U.S. Mint has stopped selling its 2013 American Eagle silver bullion coins.

According to mint spokesman Michael White, 6,700,000 ounces of Silver Eagle coins were sold between Jan. 7, when the coins first went on sale, and Jan. 15. Until this year, the all-time high was 6,422,000 ounces, set in January 2011.

"We mint to demand," mint spokesman Michael White told ABC News.

In an email to authorized purchasers, the mint said it would resume sales around the week of Jan. 28, after it mints more coins.

One of the purchasers, Terry Hanlon, was very happy about the situation.

"I love it," said Hanlon of Dillon Gage Metals, a primary precious metals dealer in Dallas that buys directly from the mint and sells to bankers, coin dealers and jewelers. "We are very, very busy and we have been for the last several months. That would certainly reflect that people are worried that the financial situation in the U.S. isn't going to get any better -- so they're buying precious metals."
PHOTO: A worker sorts trays of silver blanks that will be used for the National Medals at the West Point Mint, May 18, 2012 in West Point, New York.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A worker sorts trays of silver blanks that... View Full Size
PHOTO: A worker sorts trays of silver blanks that will be used for the National Medals at the West Point Mint, May 18, 2012 in West Point, New York.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A worker sorts trays of silver blanks that will be used for the National Medals at the West Point Mint, May 18, 2012 in West Point, N.Y.

Peter Schiff, an economist and president of Euro Pacific Precious Metals, a precious metals dealer in New York, agreed.

"With the Federal Reserve clearly stating that unlimited money creation and dollar debasement are its intended policy goals, it's becoming painfully obvious to more and more investors that precious metals are a better savings alternative than zero-interest bank deposits," said Schiff. "For many of these first-time buyers, silver bullion coins like U.S. Silver Eagles are one of the easiest, most reliable and most cost effective means to get precious metal exposure."

But, he added, if investors can't buy Silver Eagles, they can also buy other coins like Canadian Maple Leaf silver coins, which are minted by the Canadian government and are "just as good."

"When people are buying bullion they're not collecting the coins, they just want to have reliable silver," he said.

The American Eagle Bullion program was launched in 1986 with the sale of gold and silver bullion coins. Platinum was added 11 years later.

The coins are produced at the mint's plant in West Point, N.Y.
Click to expand...
There is a number mismatch, that Mint spokesman would have said 6,700,000 but the Mints website shows http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/american_eagles/?action=sales&year=2013
6,007,000
And according to my monitoring of it:
2013/01/15 5,082,000 110,500 39,500
2013/01/16 5,132,000 113,000 39,500
2013/01/18 6,007,000 121,500 39,500
2013/01/19 6,007,000 127,000 39,500
(time zone is GMT so 18 could be 17)
The > 6 Moz increase was placed on the 18th.
In any timezone, that site update happened certainly later than the given sales period that claims 6,700,000.
And that abc article 's figure is not a typo, because it's also clearly stated that jan 2013 sales are higher than jan 2011 sales, which wouldnt be true in case 6,007,000.

About real life aside of internet stories, I just checked every dealer I know in my EU region (Netherland/Germany/Belgium/Austria) and none mentions ASE delivery problems, despite the previous 'production suspension' lasted 3 weeks (last half december + 1 week jan). All the dealers that indicate on their sites whether the products are in stock or not, list them as in stock.

So, as far as I'm aware of info, those claims of shortages, well, IF there is anything true about it, it's in the US Mint -> authorized dealers part of the supply chain, not (yet?) in the dealers -> customers part, despite the now to a combined past 3+ new 1 weeks increased production suspension.
Aside of this, it's only a one week suspension lol.
And let alone a silver shortage on a general level. Stock of Comex sits on a >1 year high. SLV (IShares Silver Trust) dito.
That means that the 'paper side' frontrunned everyone that is buying now, since the current price reflects their purchases.
Remember 2011? SLV's stock increased from 11000 to 18736 tonnes in 2 months. Dumping it was a matter of a week. Oh look at all those 1000 ouncers for sale.
Of course, the crazy price swings DO cause shortages of specific forms of silver, it's hard to do stock planning under such price trend regime. But, just temporary.

According to that abc news article, the Mint needs a week to produce more ASE's. That indicates that they don't lack silver blancs (it would be late if the blancs let alone the silver itself have yet to be found lol), only time to produce.
So to me, this appears again like such a silver pump story by those that sit ready to write a silver dump story.
I think I'm gonna keep my euro's instead of hurrying to buy some ASE's at the dealer.
That's what I did before when reading these stories, and I ended up receiving more silver, despite the claimed shortage. Weird eh? :p
 
1 + 1 does not always equal 2. Just because the US Mint has suspended ASE production does not therefore immediately mean there is some shortage of silver.

Because we on the outside dont know why the US Mint has suspended production (but a likely cause would be production capacity) that doesnt mean every silverbug's claim that their is a silver shortage is true.

I'm sure dealers around the world have ample supply of 100oz and 1000oz bars to sell. There is just 1 product at the moment they cannot supply you, an ASE dated 2013 and that's hardly worth speaking about in the grand scheme of silver supply.
 
What I find disturbing, once again, in this story, is that when you google it, you see the Zerohedge version is copied all over the silver related/community sites, without any copier actually checking what is true of it and what isnt.
Due to this, that abc news article was already mowed down in the google list several pages deep, and if I had waited some days longer to search, I would probably have been unable or lack the time to find it back.
Everyone that compares the abc news' US Mint spokesman story with the US Mints site sales report, would have noticed the difference.
Everyone that is just a tiny bit critical, should realize that a general silver shortage and a single week sales suspension from a third level node (miners/refiners>metal processors for blancs>US Mint) in the silver supply chain, don't make a sensical story. And that's already ignoring the plenty other silver market data.

This is all encouraging people to buy based on faulty reasons.
Which is the number1 cause for losses.
I can hardly name that positive for the silver market.
And the same then represent themselves as the number one silver resources.
They bash the central planning crap.
Fine. Good.
But their level of 'informativity' is actually supporting the case of the central planners. They inflict people that try to evade the theft by the govts/banksters and their interest groups, the very same.
Good job? Hum.
I know a better way to encourage people to buy and hold silver.
That is: holding them in the green. Or in any case, minimalize losses.
By avoiding to pay price levels that were bloated by frontrunners that aren't after the silver but after other peoples dollars.
 
Sales are back on - apparently on an allocation basis.

Wholesale premiums have thankfully tumbled in response, prices should be back to normal for now.
 
goldpelican said:
Sales are back on - apparently on an allocation basis.

Wholesale premiums have thankfully tumbled in response, prices should be back to normal for now.
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did you hear anything about the maple leafs being put on allocation?
 
Yeah prices are down the last day or so. Still, I doubt I would be buying US coins, they're a little overpriced.
 
Silverthorn said:
did you hear anything about the maple leafs being put on allocation?
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What I saw was an article titled as Canadian Mint, but with text about US Mint.
Maybe the hype-club had to insinuate a shortage, and copied the US Mint article to a new article, changing title to Canadian Mint?
 
Wasn't it due to a lack of planchettes last time, something about Australia making the blanks and the Americans being very upset when they found out their Eagles were not on American silver.

I can still see plenty of silver on sale so I am not worried!
 
Jislizard said:
Wasn't it due to a lack of planchettes last time, something about Australia making the blanks and the Americans being very upset when they found out their Eagles were not on American silver.

I can still see plenty of silver on sale so I am not worried!
Click to expand...

sure, but it shows the strength in demand. I dare say they won't want to get caught out again.
 
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