Silver Institute: Coin demand forces five major mints to restrict supply

The following is an edited summary report from the Washington D.C.-based Silver Institute. For more information please visit www.SilverInstitute.org. Retail investors in recent months have been stocking up on silver bullion coins and, to a lesser extent, bars. Due to strong demand, the U.S. Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint, Australia’s Perth Mint, the Austrian Mint and the British Royal Mint have put their silver bullion coins on allocation, where the volume of distribution of coins is controlled due to bottlenecks in the manufacturing process. This is an unprecedented industry-wide phenomenon. In recent history, putting bullion coins on allocation has only occasionally been done by the U.S. Mint. The practice points to considerable tightness in the silver coin business at the moment. Globally, silver bullion coin sales reached an all-time high of 32.9 million oz in this year’s third quarter, according to GFMS Thomson Reuters data. This volume was a 74% quarter-on-quarter and 95% year-on-year increase. Sales in North America, Europe, Japan and other Asian countries (mostly China) saw quarter-on-quarter growth of 74%, 72%, 95% and 202%. As a result, lead times for silver coins have been stretched from immediate delivery to three to four weeks in some cases. This is an unusual occurrence in the industry … Read the complete article at NorthernMiner.com/news/silver-institute