2013-02-13 · Kurt Wallace
The Silver Shortage of 2013
Did you hear the U.S. Mint just ran out of silver? In mid-January, the Mint suspended sale of the 2013 run of its popular U.S. “Eagles.”
The new silver Eagles sold out fast. They went on sale, and buyers bought everything they could lay hands on. Within days, the shelves at the Mint were stripped bare. It’s not the first time that this has happened.
The Mint quickly announced that it’s obtaining new supplies of silver. It will stamp out more Eagle coins. There will be more to buy, or so they say. And yet… people in the silver markets are squirming — and I’ll tell you more about that, below.
Right now, silver sells for $31.50 per ounce, give or take. That’s if you can find somebody to sell you their silver at that price. If you’re a normal, everyday retail buyer, good luck trying.
Let’s say you want to buy some silver. You call up one of those companies that advertise on the radio and find out that there’s a markup to $40 or more for 1-ounce bullion coins. That’s if they have any to sell to the likes of you. After all, are you a big wheeler-dealer?
If you want the fancy versions of silver coins — “uncirculated” and “proof” specimens — the price is twice (or more) the posting for basic metal.
The bottom line is that silver is hard to get. You have to plan ahead to obtain the metal, and even the U.S. Mint gets its numbers wrong, now and again.
From what I’m seeing — and I’ll explain this, below — one of these days, the Mint might not simply resume sales so quickly. It won’t have the basic metal. And I suspect we’re going to see silver prices move much higher.