Current Shortage of Gold & Silver Eagle Coins in the Marketplace Explained

 

The amazingly strong, (but not surprising), surge in demand for gold & silver bullion items since the November 3rd Presidential Election is now being exacerbated by a shortage of Gold and Silver American Eagle coins from the US Mint.  We were informed today by one of our US Mint distributors that the current supply of coins from the US Mint has been absorbed into the market. The Mint is in the process of issuing new reverse designs for the Gold & Silver Eagles and that is planned to occur around mid-year.  So the Mint basically produced a large group of "type 1", current design coins (same design they have had since 1986), and this group was planned to last throughout the first 6 months of 2021, with the new "type 2" reverse design coins being released in time to handle the final 6 months of 2021 and that new design will continue into the future.What the Mint didn't expect was the extreme surge in demand caused by the election's political concerns, as well as the fear of the continually degrading dollar caused by the massive debt run-up from the Covid situation and it's ensuing economic stimulus plans.

This shortage of gold & silver bullion coins has caused a large spike in premiums, as well as delays in receiving orders.  As a real-world example, a couple months ago we were selling the one ounce Silver American Eagle coins for Spot plus $4.50 each in a 100 piece lot.  Today, our wholesale cost on them is now Spot plus $8.50, with new orders expected to take around 30 days to come in.  And the recent jump in demand for silver from the new buyers involved in the Reddit forum discussions has only added fuel to the fire.  

Fortunately though, (I guess it's fortunate?), the world Spot Market prices have remained pretty stable over the past week as big bullion players like JP Morgan Chase have continued to short the market to hold prices down and prevent the Reddit players from making huge profits in silver like those that we watched them achieve in the GameStop and AMC stock plays.   This shorting will put an additional squeeze on physical silver at some point in the future, so they are really just kicking the can down the road a ways.

Of course, the shortage of American Eagle coins has buyers turning to other popular foreign coin issues in an attempt to acquire physical metal with shorter delivery times and lower premiums.  So as you might expect, shortages are also developing in Canadian Maple Leaf coins, Austrian Philharmonics, Bullion Bars and British and Australian bullion items.

Rest assured that all pre-paid orders placed with us will be filled as expected, and in the most timely manner possible.  We appreciate your business and look forward to handling all of your precious metals trading needs.