US Mint Sold Out of Silver Eagle Bullion Coins Until January 7, 2013

[EE_]

Probably why silver price is crashing? http://izismile.com/engine/data/emoticons/35.gif

December 17, 2012 By Michael Zielinski 10 Comments

Authorized purchasers will be faced with a three week period during which there will be no American Silver Eagle bullion coins available to order from the United States Mint.

The Mint recently informed authorized purchasers that all remaining inventories of 2012-dated Silver Eagle bullion coins had sold out and no additional coins would be struck. Since the 2013-dated coins will not be available to order until January 7, 2013, this leaves a three week void for the Mint's most popular bullion offering.

As with other bullion programs, the US Mint does not sell Silver Eagle bullion coins directly to the public, but distributes them through a network of authorized purchasers. The primary distributors are able to purchase the coins in bulk quantities at a price based on the market price of silver plus a fixed mark up. The coins are then resold to other bullion dealers, coin dealers, and the public.

The US Mint originally began accepting orders for the 2012 Silver Eagles from authorized purchasers on January 3, 2012. After a strong January, monthly sales trailed the levels of the prior year until October when demand started to move higher. In November, bullion sales continued their renewed strength, with sales of American Gold and Silver Eagles more than doubling the figures from the year ago period.

The strong sales in November caused the United States Mint to adjust their production plans for one ounce and one-tenth ounce American Gold Eagle bullion coins in order to avoid selling out prior to the end of the year. Apparently, the Mint did not adjust production plans for American Silver Eagle bullion coins.

Sales figures published on the Mint's website indicate sales of 1,403,000 of the one ounce Silver Eagle bullion coins for the month of December. Year to date sales have reached 33,510,500.

http://news.coinupdate.com/us-mint-sold-out-of-silver-eagle-bullion-coins-1766/

[steyr_m]

Three letters -- SML. Silver Maple Leaf.

SMLs are purer than SAE's anyways. If you have both, you will notice the SAE is a bit larger with the same weight....

[EE_]

These are staggering amounts of money pouring into precious metals.
Over 10 billion dollars worth of bullion silver eagles alone bought by mostly retail investors this year.
I wonder what the year total of all silver retail sales is? And gold?

[steyr_m]

These are staggering amounts of money pouring into precious metals.
Over 10 billion dollars worth of bullion silver eagles alone bought by mostly retail investors this year.
I wonder what the year total of all silver retail sales is? And gold?

Dunno, it probably is quite a bit. It's still nothing compared to derivatives, which is in the Trillions. With recent events like tungsten filled gold bars, it makes a minor investment in Au/Ag seem like very wise decision.

People where I work are still clue-less. Most of the people think buying Au/Ag means buying jewelry....

[slvrbugjim]

December 19 - Gold $1666.40 down $3.10 - Silver $31.05 down 56 cents
Historic Significance
"The interesting thing is they send the Queen into the vault, but they don’t send in independent auditors to actually determine who’s gold that is and whether it’s really gold." … James Turk
GO GATA!
What we are witnessing in the gold/silver markets at the moment is perhaps of historical significance. Never seen anything like it in terms of…
*The divergence of historic norm price action between the precious metals and other markets. You could not have found ONE person weeks ago (outside of The Gold Cartel) who would have called for the price of gold to be bombed with the euro moving up like has, making 7 ½ month highs in the process, and with other outside markets also supportive. No one would have called for the price of gold doing what it has after the QE forever announcements by BOTH the US and Japan.
*The growing intensity of waterfall bombing attacks by The Gold Cartel. That growing intensity has been a topic in this commentary for much of the year. Never before has The Gold Cartel been so obvious on a daily basis, with one of their patented maneuvers easily spotted. But, it is the latest major waterfall attacks (two in Asia and two on the Comex) over the past three to four weeks which tells us something profound is at work behind the scenes.
*Yesterday’s insidious attack on the gold price took the cake for audacity. For gold to tank, when it ought to have been moving higher based on the news and outside financial markets, suggests The Gold Cartel really is as desperate as alluded to here over many weeks. They are resorting to their blatant attacks for some hidden agenda which relates to severe financial distress which will surface in the months ahead, if not sooner. Gold is widely viewed as a barometer of US financial market health. So SHOOT THE MESSENGER.
This is what is coming and a reason The Gold Cartel is so obsessed with trashing the price of gold…
We’re Going to be in a New Recession-John Williams 19 December 2012
http://usawatchdog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/John-Williams-212x300.jpg

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com (http://usawatchdog.com/)
Economist John Williams thinks the economy is in worse shape than most people think. In 2013, Williams predicts, "As this goes forward, you’re going to see we’re going to be in a new recession." The Federal Reserve announced last week it is now printing a total of $85 billion every month to reduce unemployment and stimulate the economy. Williams says, "That’s nonsense. . . . There’s nothing they can do to stimulate the economy." Williams has long contended the Fed is really just using the weak economy to continue to prop up the banking system. Williams says, "If the Fed wasn’t doing what it’s doing . . . I’d presume you’d be on the road to a banking system collapse. The banking system is still in trouble." Williams warns the "open-ended" printing of $85 billion a month ". . . will be part of what will eventually become hyperinflation." And if there is no deal on the so-called "fiscal cliff," then Williams expects "heavy selling pressure on the U.S. dollar." Join Greg Hunter as he goes One-on-One with John Williams of Shadowstats.com. (http://www.shadowstats.com/)
Video Link
http://usawatchdog.com/were-going-to-be-in-a-new-recession-john-williams/
-END-
When all of this begins to kick in next year, The Gold Cartel (money elite and political powers) want the price of gold at bay to deflect attention to their money printing in this NO SOLUTION environment. They want the investing crowd to relate to how gold just traded following the latest money printing announcements … that it can’t be counted on as a safe investment to hedge against the money printing. They want that barometer in broken mode and not to be where the action is.
WHY term this historical? Because, IMO, they are telegraphing what is coming by their raids on gold and silver. They are showing their desperation! Perhaps it takes being in the GATA camp to really appreciate what is going on here in terms of what The Gold Cartel gang is up to. But we do. What we are witnessing is more than unusual and sinister.
We have watched raids over the years, or just price corrections, but in almost every case there were corresponding fundamental reasons for those corrections, or at least the apologists for The Gold Cartel could point to some reason why gold was doing so poorly. These days they are just throwing up silly garbage to explain the price action, using ANYTHING that comes to mind.
The good news is Newton’s Law is not going away. The equal and opposite reaction to this perverse price trashing, will be slingshot moves to the upside for precious metals prices which will astound the investment community next year. The move up in silver will top that of the Hunt Brothers around 33 years ago.
So, as Jim Sinclair says, we can either be emotional about it, or take the time to understand what is going on re what sort of opportunity lies ahead. Staying on the case will pay off big time for those who stay the course.
Meanwhile, the affront to investors in the precious metals sector remains front and center. Gold was under pressure this morning, rallied and then was sold again.
Since JPM did not get what they wanted out of the silver price drop yesterday, they went back at it today in earnest. They dropped the price to $31.01 and all rallies off those lows were sold. Late in the day it dropped to $30.94. The bullies in the silver schoolyard are really throwing a tantrum.
Until this latest blasting of the silver price over the past week, it seemed to me that silver was in explosive mode. Must have used that term 7 or 8 times over the past month. Some explosion this is! What’s the deal?…
*The assessment is either still correct, or dead wrong.
*My bet is that it is so correct, JPM and allies are making one last raid to flush out as many spec longs as they can before the price goes berserk. When you have the kind of money they have at their disposal, that crowd can use the derivatives market to push prices in a certain direction over a short period of time. That pushing not only puts off some buyers, but encourages spec selling. However, if the physical market is in as good a shape as our camp thinks it is, these lowered prices will not stand. Will JPM runs for the hills, or the physical market just overpower them? Two closes over $35 ought to send the price towards $50 and then $100 an ounce. It will be an historic move.
*There is a fair chance one of the reasons for the raid on gold is to influence more silver spec longs to dump their positions. It is very possible that is how dire the situation is in silver. The silver open interest was 141,423 contracts yesterday, down only 594 contracts, and still above that key 140,000 contract level RR has been focusing on. It is very possible silver is that explosive, and JPM that desperate to cover. Only time will tell, with the proof of that in the pudding … a sharply rising price.
The gold open interest went UP 4009 contracts to 435,742, which meant The Gold Cartel was out in full force, OR, their efforts have attracted new spec shorts … could be a combination of both.
Mentioned to Dave from Denver the brutal nature of what they are doing. He came back with…
This is what it is Bill. It will probably get uglier before it hits absolute bottom and start up again.

Here's what I bet is happening right now - and it's been like this for a few years now. We've seen the cartel reduce their gold short significantly over the past 2-3 weeks, at the expense of the black box funds selling longs. I bet the black box funds are chasing the momentum lower here by increasing their shorts, further enabling the cartel to cover. That's why - I believe - the o/i increased yesterday. Let's see if I'm right with Friday's COT report. If I am, we are very close the end of this b.s.

As for silver, I don't know what say about that. The o/i is persisting north of 140k. It means that either the cartel is really going to try hard to shake out the fund longs or it may mean a completely different dynamic has developed. We won't know the answer to that until we see if there's several more cliff-drops in silver over the next few weeks.
***

RSI of Euro Silver signalling this horsesh*t's likely almost done!..
Bill,
Some chart observations on this frustrating anomaly we are witnessing at present where even as the Euro appears to be breaking out ever higher, our Favourite Metals are being taking to the woodshed!
Below is the Chart of Euro Silver with it’s RSI (Relative Strength Index) below. Note how grossly oversold it is now on a daily basis! In fact as I write this, the Euro is up another 60 odd ticks and Hi-Ho’s down further, which has pushed the RSI down below 28 territory!

http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2012/Midas/Midas1219A.gif As you can see Since 2005 there have been some 13 other incidences when the RSI has been below 30.
Below I’ve taken this RSI Chart and applied it to the Standard (Dollar denominated) Silver Price.

http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2012/Midas/Midas1219B.gif Now for the clear facts:
1) Note on every other occasion such oversold conditions have almost immediately led to an arrest in the fall in the Price followed by a short term bounce, although on a couple of occasions, most notably 5 and 6 in 2008, the RSI plunged further to circa 20 before a fall in the Silver Price was arrested!
2) In the majority of incidences, with 2 main exceptions (5,6) the Price either
(i) Coincided directly with a spike multi-month low (1,3,7,8,9,11) and exceptional positive returns in the months directly thereafter
(ii) Coincided directly with the arrest of any Price Fall (2,10), enjoying a bounce of some 10-20% over the post ceding few weeks thereafter
(iii) Coincided close to a near term bottom in the Silver Price (4,12,13), ensuring a suitable positive return of 10-30% in 16 weeks or less
3) It must be remembered that the incidences of 5 and 6 coincided with the panic and chaos of the 2nd half of 2008. And even so, on each occasion there was a suitable near term bounce in the Price Of Silver before another collapse in prices ensued.
On the evidence above history would therefore suggest that this near term anomaly in Euro Terms and correction in Silver Price is likely to bottom out very shortly, and a reasonable bounce is highly likely in the very near term which may well coincide with a multi-month low for the Price. In fact it would be unprecedented if the bounce was not atleast of a 10% calibre, which puts Hi-Ho back up into the $34-35 range from here,
Of course we may be seeing the same technical breakdown (5,6) we witnessed in 2008 although further analysis suggests that this scenario is even more unlikely.
Below I’ve included the same graph as above, but adding the movement of the Euro (Xeu) beneath:

http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2012/Midas/Midas1219C.gif The incidents of 5 and 6 coincided with a collapse in the Euro, whilst on this occasion the Euro has been rallying strongly and appears to be on the cusp of breaking higher. In other words, the reason the Euro Silver Price is so over sold at present is not that Silver is collapsing in price faster than the Euro, but because the Euro is rallying whilst Silver is falling.
This is very significant in my book, because it would be truly unprecedented for a further collapse of the PM Sector to occur under a multi-month Dollar decline. We have witnessed a number of short term anomalies such as now within this Bull Run with the Euro and the PM’s, but never for more than a few weeks if memory serves me well.
In fact it’s better than that, If you study the chart again, any incidence when the RSI has dropped below 30, and has preceded a multi-month rally in the Euro, it has always shown startling returns on a 6-9 month basis (2,3,7,9).
I guess a large part of the question is whether we’re on the cusp of another multi-month run on the Dollar? In which case, should it really come as a surprise to any of us to see the PM Sector attacked just prior?!?
All Food for Thought,
Kind regards,
Rich (Live from 'The Bridge of the Silver Rocket Ship') And if one thought that the charts below were setting off alarm bells on traders desks, Take a look at where we are on the Euro Gold RSI at present,

http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2012/Midas/Midas1219D.png I haven’t the time to put the full research in like my correspondence earlier, but looking back through the longer term chart you can see this has if ever been more oversold on this basis!

http://www.lemetropolecafe.com/img2012/Midas/Midas1219E.png Wouldn’t surprise me if we see the near term bottom in today on this basis,
In fact it would surprise me if we don’t within the next 48 hours!
***

[BarnkleBob]

It's really simple.... it's all about bonds... the banks cannot allow bond holders to enter PM Markets... banks hold bonds as the reserve asset, not gold. If bonds crash so do the banks... gotta make bonds APPEAR TO BE the safe haven.... competition is a sin....