With investment demand for Silver Eagles continuing to be very strong, the U.S. Mint sold nearly 7 million of the official coins in the first six weeks of the new year. Even Gold Eagles’ sales hit a new record in January, pushing premiums up to $150+ for the one-ounce 2021 official coin. I believe we are going to see record physical gold and silver buying in 2021.
According to the most recent update as of Feb 9th, the U.S. Mint sold 2,121,000 Silver Eagles so far in the month and 71,500 oz of Gold Eagles. As you can see below, the U.S. Mint only sold the 1-ounce Gold Eagles in February.
The total Silver Eagles to data are 6,896,000 and 292,000 oz of Gold Eagles. I corresponded with Dan at CLOUD HARD ASSETS this morning, and they can only provide Random Year Silver Eagles, but they have one of the lowest prices. Some large online dealers are selling the 2021 Silver Eagles with a 10-14 day wait time, while other dealers are selling only the Random Year Silver Eagles. The average premium above spot for the Random Year from the top online dealers was nearly $12. However, Cloud Hard Assets is selling them for only $8.40 above spot.
One of the four competing online dealers offered a lower price for Random Silver Eagles, but they didn’t have any in stock to sell. What’s also quite interesting is that it’s hard to obtain the larger silver bullion bars. Very few dealers have supply of the 100 oz silver bars. And, if you can find them, they are selling at $5-$6+ over spot. Even the 1,000 oz wholesale silver bars are hard to acquire with high premiums.
As I mentioned in my subscriber article below, something BIG CHANGED in the silver market as a record 110 million oz of silver “supposedly” moved into the iShares SLV ETF. Not only did a record amount of silver move into the SLV ETF, so did the number of shares. In just three days (JAN 28th-FEB 2nd), the SLV ETF’s total shares increased by 119 million. It seems to me that this was a way to CAP the SLV share price. Since the peak on Feb 2nd, the silver inventories in the SLV ETF fell by 40 million oz, and the shares declined by 44 million.
Even though the “supposed” silver inventories in the SLV ETF surged and then declined, something BIG CHANGED compared to the silver rally in July-August 2020. If you look at the chart below, we can see how little metal moved into the SLV ETF during the price rise in late July and early August. However, on a much smaller price rise recently, the amount of metal that moved into the SLV ETF was a record high.
The much talked about “Silver ShortSqueeze” will likely continue due to the lack of available physical silver and tightness in the wholesale silver bar market. If you check out the article above, I explain why how Investment Demand is now competing with Industrial Demand. This will likely turn out very similar to what is taking place in the Palladium Market.
Lastly, if you want to check out some of the lowest precious metals bullion product prices, check out CLOUD HARD ASSETS.
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Get into March…..and, don’t look Ethel…. here comes SILVER……again!
“… don’t look Ethel …!”
Wow! You’ve got a great memory, 4oz!
I still have that record!
Just wait a while for premiums to go down…if you have to have ASE’s. Other sovereign coins can be obtained for about $5 over spot, and one can wait for those to go down also.
Big difference between retail premiums and/or shortage, and same in the wholesale market. And it’s harder to know what is going on in the 1,000 ounce bar markets.
Maybe one day it will be tight everywhere. I suspect retailers will soon restock and premiums will go down again.
I’ve got it figured out!
Everytime Mr. Steve St. Angelo posts an article on the SRS Rocco report, there is a corresponding sale of approximately 100,000 Silver Eagles by the U.S. Mint!
This is manipulation!
Well, OK. At least it happened in 2020 and 2021😀
It seems that way.
The powers that be know who is knowledgeable in these matters and also [for example] relating to effective prevention & treatment of this virus, that bypasses control by governments, organized political medicine, and their patented drugs that are very expensive…and don’t work as well.
Get too assertive on YouTube and watch your channel go down.
Join the movement to squeeze the guts out of the manipulators. Buy some physical silver!
That makes sense on a grassroots level. It should work. I’ve been hearing/reading that sentiment strongly starting around 2012.
But while the little guys can save a little bit, we need the buying/demand events with “awaken the sleeping giant” potential.
Like a receive-it-just-in-time electronics firm like Apple or Samsung [who makes several of the components that go into Apple devices], or electric vehicles manufacturers, or photovoltaics firm NOT GET what they need for a couple months.
Or India or China stockpiling [heard that is happening now].
Or traders, hedge funds, pension funds, etc. deciding not to play the paper/contract game for cash but demanding physical delivery of 1,000 ounce bars into their physical possession.
Or those individuals with many tens of millions of dollars/pounds/euros in liquid assets making large purchases to move into their own vaults or allocated storage.
Before that squeeze gets in gear, get a little each month, or wait a couple months for premiums to go down, or try to get inventory when the next equities market correction occurs with a corresponding dip [until retail industry runs out again].
The off-topic question, Steve: Where do you see nuclear power and uranium reserves among the Energy Cliff’s mitigating factors–if at all?