U.S. MINT RECORD SILVER EAGLE SALES: Best All Year
After the recent price smash in silver, investors purchased a record amount of Silver Eagles. In the first eight days of October, the U.S. Mint sold a great deal more Silver Eagles than it did during the same time period in all the months throughout the year.
If we take a look at the chart below, we can see just how strong October Silver Eagle sales are compared to the sales in the typical week in previous months:
In the first eight days in October, the U.S. Mint sold 2,250,000 Silver Eagles and is on track to being one of the strongest months of the year. Even though sales were strong last month, the weekly average of Silver Eagle sales in September were only 1,305,000… 42% less than the current trend in October.
While it’s true that I am comparing the first eight days in October to the average week in previous months, I would imagine the majority of October’s sales took place during the first seven days and then were recorded on the following day.
Regardless, the U.S. Mint is selling Silver Eagles hand over fist to investors who believe this is one of the best buying opportunities ever. Not only are first week sales of Silver Eagles stronger than any other month, they have already surpassed the total sales in the month of July and August:
Furthermore, total Silver Eagle sales for the year are 34.5 million. Last month I forecasted sales would reach a total of 37 million for 2014, however this was before the recent price take-down and huge increase of demand. If sales remain strong throughout the remainder of the year, the U.S. Mint could sell 40-41 million Silver Eagles…. just shy of the 42.6 million sold in 2013.
In addition, investors are purchasing a hell of a lot more Silver Eagles than Gold Eagles:
2014 Silver Eagle Sales = 34.5 million
2014 Gold Eagle Sales = 404,000 oz
2014 Silver-Gold Eagle Ratio = 85/1
Things may get quite interesting in the precious metals markets due to the recent statements by the FOMC. Here are the bullet points (Zerohedge) from the FOMC minutes:
•*FED OFFICIALS SAW GLOBAL SLOWDOWN AMONG RISKS TO U.S. OUTLOOK (growth)
•*FOMC SAID SOME DEVELOPMENTS COULD UNDERMINE FINANCIAL STABILITY (bubbles)
•*FED SAW RISING DOLLAR AS RISK TO EXPORTS, GROWTH, MINUTES SHOW (jawbone USD)
If the FED believes the U.S. Dollar is too strong, along with an increased risk to global financial stability, this could result in monetary policy that would be very favorable for gold and silver.
And… it would come at a pivotal point when the precious metals market sentiment is at all-time lows. Regardless, exchanging increasingly worthless U.S. Dollars for Silver Eagles is a great deal at anytime. Sure, some investors may have purchased Silver Eagles at a higher price, but this won’t matter when the U.S. Dollar and Treasury Market implode.
Lastly…. investors are voting with their fiat money by purchasing 85 Silver Eagles for each Gold Eagle oz. Thus, investors have now spent more money purchasing Silver Eagles than Gold Eagles in 2014–another record.
If we go by the current average annual price of gold and silver (add $30 premium for Gold Eagles and $2 for Silver Eagles), we would have the following:
Estimated Market Value of Gold & Silver Eagle Sales in 2014
2014 Gold Eagle Sales = $531 million
2014 Silver Eagle Sales = $745 million
Again, this is just an estimate, but I would imagine when the U.S. Mint publishes its 2014 Annual Report, we will see that total Dollar sales in Silver Eagles will be higher than Gold Eagles.
The best time to buy Gold or Silver is anytime before the Financial System collapses. The day after… will be too late.
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I would like to see current ratio between sales of SE and 1oz bullion rds. and bars.
I suspect the SE will be in tighter hands for the long term thus affecting long term supply.
But where are shortage?
No shortages at the moment but when the Asian herd follows, there will not be enough.
Forget about the Americans and Europeans. To them paper is gold
Second should be silver for $745,- Steve.
2014 Gold Eagle Sales = $531 million
2014 Gold Eagle Sales = $745 million
The phyz community isn’t crazy it seems. 1:85 ratio in sales, waiting until this fucker breaks…
houtskool,
Thanks for bringing that to my attention. Yeah, I do my own editing, and as you can tell I have a lot of errors ..LOL. I changed it, thanks.
steve
It wasn’t a deadly mistake. More a logical slip of the pen in that huge pile of data. Thanks for your to the point information. This paper bitch is going down hard, before 2020, you know that, i know that. And besides some water and prep stock, it’s nice to have some phyz insurance, or barter metals, whatever you call it. One big manipulated pile of shit ‘markets’ have become, all of this paper artificial ‘wealth’ being managed by tbtf, all working very hard against gravity.
Keep up the facts. And thanks again.
houtskool,
Totally agree with you that by 2020.. the world will be a much different place. PEAK OIL will be a distant memory by that time. And, when investors realize the NET PRESENT VALUE of most paper assets aren’t worth the paper they are printed on when PEAK OIL is understood globally…. GOLD AND SILVER WILL SKYROCKET.
steve
And just before that ‘skyrocketing’, let’s say halfway, convert. A certain location with sustainable and arable assets. Roguefaction has a point. When the metals show it’s real face, the rest of the faces will be full of fear. But maybe, it will all go away. Like a gold backed yuan, or a silver peso. Maybe it will all just dissapear. But i doubt it.
Is an ounce of silver the same value whether it is eagles or buffaloes? If not why not?
Ronni,
Yes, it’s the same troy ounce in either Eagles or Buffalos. Official Coins such as the Silver Eagle and Canadian Maple are called COINS, whereas the Silver Buffalos produced by private mints are called ROUNDS.
Even though the premium is higher for the Official Coins, you normally get a good bit of that premium back when you sell… of course this depends on current market conditions.
The Silver Eagle has a purity of .999, while the Silver Maple has .9999– four nines. Not much a big difference.
steve
Steve, indeed silver eagles are coins and we the people who want to own them should contact our government representatives and ask them to make them money for us to use as a savings means. For these coins to be money all taxes federal and state must be eliminated. That is sales taxes or capital gains taxes, etc. What would follow would be businesses quoting prices of goods and services in silver eagles and/or US fiat. The silver eagle could pave the way back toward an honest money system which would probably be a long slow process.
jeani,
As you know, several states passed PRO-PRECIOUS METALS BILLS. Utah passed a bill stating gold and silver were legal tender:
I believe Utah sees the writing on the wall, and took the first step of introducing gold and silver as a competing form of legal tender.
I actually don’t see the Federal Govt passing bills to make Gold & Silver Legal tender, but rather I see the states doing it in increasing numbers. I believe the United States will disintegrate into several regions that will finally be forced to to use a physical-backed currency to commence trade.
steve
Steve, don’t know if you have seen this;
http://www.ingoldwetrust.ch/world-gold-council-clueless-on-chinese-gold-demand-2
“There is now so much evidence the demand numbers from the World Gold Council are eroneous the WGC is obligated to either revise their numbers upwards, or cease reporting on the Chinese gold market all together. Until then their numbers on Chinese demand are completely unacceptable”.
– Koos Jansen
George & James B
There exists a dangerous shortage of physical silver in the market. The Shanghai Exchange and their silver market have been deep into silver backwardation for some time now. Which depicts a shortage of physical metal for delivery. Their stockpile of available silver for delivery has fallen by over 90% in this past year. It is now so dangerously low, that any high net worth individual could cause it to break with a massive purchase.
Also consider Steve’s stats on the sale of silver eagles. The US yearly silver production of approx. 33 million ounces, will no longer satisfy just the demand for silver eagles! The US Mint will be forced once again to replenish their physical silver stocks from the market place, further adding to overall demand on an already thin physical market. Shortage? Watch the fireworks!
OutLookingin,
Yes, I have read that article and agree with Koos that the WGC is underestimating total Chinese gold demand. That being said, I believe their overall figures make some sense. I explain this in my first upcoming paid report, THE U.S. GOLD MARKET REPORT.
Thomson Reuters GFMS provides the figures for the World Gold Council and the Silver Institute. I had an email exchange with the top silver analyst at GFMS on several issues, and only received one response.
As I mentioned in the Silver Eagle article, the annual silver deficits since the early 1990’s were supplemented by the so-called UNREPORTED ABOVE-GROUND STOCKS that were estimated to be 2.3 billion oz in 1990 and now are almost zero.
I provide SUPPLY & DEMAND data just to keep the public informed, but I truly believe the HUGE REVALUTION of gold and silver will occur when the world realizes PEAK OIL is finally here… FOREVER. That realization will destroy the NET PRESENT VALUE of most paper assets, forcing investors to move into physical assets such as gold and silver to protect wealth.
steve
“I provide SUPPLY & DEMAND data just to keep the public informed, but I truly believe the HUGE REVALUTION of gold and silver will occur when the world realizes PEAK OIL is finally here… FOREVER.”
It will take a long time for some to accept oil is a fossil energy product and there isn’t a perpetual oil source from rocks. Abiotic oil. If it was real at least it would have been brought up as a topic of conversation when I was getting my degree in geology. It was never even mentioned. I don’t buy the abiotic oil theory/story. Regardless if rocks are producing oil it isn’t building up into vast underground oil fields we tapped out in decades past.
As Steve has astutely observed if there was abundant easy-to-get oil, we wouldn’t be drilling the ocean floor or in the arctic. Ocean drilling is hard enough; many don’t realize a lot of machinery doesn’t work at -30 F and colder.
I think the historical monetary metals will cost a lot more fiat currency units before 20% of the world awakens to the fact of dwindling oil supplies.
To some the earth is still flat.
David,
You bring up a good point about the PEAK OIL NON-BELIEVERS. However, the impacts are already being felt if the NITWITS don’t wanna believe. We peaked in Conventional Crude in 2005. Then as the price skyrocketed from $25 in 2002 to $111 in 2011… the oil industry was then able to bring on the expensive CRAP OIL such as Tar Sands and Shale Oil.
The huge increase in Derivatives (over the past decade) is a DIRECT response to the peak of CHEAP CONVENTIONAL OIL. The Central Banks are trying to show ECONOMIC GROWTH during a plateau in oil production by using monetary inflation… a nice trick.
The PEAK & DECLINE of global oil production will occur much quicker and at a steeper rate than most are prepared. There will be no way to hide this fact from JOE-BAG-OF-DONUTS when U.S. Shale Energy companies go bankrupt in the droves.
This will end badly… and the majority of the cause will be PEAK OIL.
steve
“And… it would come at a pivotal point when the precious metals market sentiment is at all-time lows. ”
How can the market sentiment be at record lows if silver eagle sales are soaring? (pun intended) Who’s sentiment is being reflected in these surveys?
purchase 1000 oz when silver hit 16.75 for 2.35 over spot priCe
A local coin buyer/seller told me he didn’t think the U.S. Mint would have to start allocation, rationing, or just communicate that [due to shortages] they were suspending sales.
But that depends on their suppliers of blanks or planchets, and how many they have stockpiled.
Personally contributed to this trend. Keep falling silver/gold, I’ll buy more.
Copper COT
OCT 9/14
A similar message comes from the COT data on copper futures, where we find that the commercial (big, smart money) traders are net long in a huge way. That means as a group they are positioned for a big rally in copper prices. They are often early in adopting a big skewed position, but nearly always right in the end.
So to summarize, the smart money traders are betting on both a dollar decline, and a copper price rebound. Those two bets are actually the same thing, if we assume that a falling dollar happens, and that it causes commodities prices to rise.
http://www.mcoscillator.com/learning_center/weekly_chart/cot_data_show_a_bottom_for_copper/
Own and hold physical, when the time comes you’ll be standing Behind the fan.
Just listened to Jim willie talk about asia re-pricing gold/silver to much higher levels I really hope is wrong or at least doesn’t happen anytime soon.. I haven’t bought any pm’s since 2011 I’ve been patient and it really paid off.. I can’t believe I get to buy eagles and maples for under 20$!!!