shortage of physical gold and silver

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

The US mint and a couple of foreign mints have announced they will not likely be able to meet the demand this year for gold and silver bullion products. This is an indicator of the demand for physical gold and silver.

I have been noticing the scarcity of supply plus an increased premium over spot on gold and silver coins on some of the major bullion dealers sites. That shows up in lots of categories sporatically and increasingly, where they have nothing available at all, and also a higher premium over spot for having gold or silver in coin form.

When silver was around $25. an ounce, you could buy rolls of dimes for around $105, but with only a 10% increase in spot, they are now over $150. (I did find one dealer with some rolls of brilliant uncirculated 1955 dimes still priced at $125 so I grabbed those). Canadian silver dollars then were $15, and with a 10% increase in spot, they have jumped over 30% to $20. US historic gold coins are now sometimes available in some categories and sometimes not, but historic European gold coins, with a lower premium over spot, have really disappeared. Belgian 20 francs of the late 19th century used to be commonly available at about $10 over spot, but not lately. Even the Habsburg era gold restrikes, which are still being struck by the Vienna mint, are increasingly hard to find (I like the 1915 restrike one ducat, which is .1107 ounce of gold but usually available at $20 cheaper than current US mint one tenth ounce bullion coins - more gold for less money, how can you beat that?).

The Reddit / Robinhood attack on a silver ETF has seemed to have spooked the market. What the bullion banks did to fight that has left the physical silver market very narrow on supply, and that momentum seems to have spilled over into gold.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Hey brother can you spare a dime.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

I have old proof sets, is it time to sell

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I have old proof sets, is it time to sell

Proof sets value is not that linked to the silver content of several of the coins. It is more the numismatic value.

I am seeing the shortages gradually get worse of both popular gold and silver coins with the bullion dealers.

The relationship to the "paper silver" and "physical silver" markets is something I have heard a lot of theories about but do not fully understand. Some people claim paper silver (and gold) is leveraged but others dispute that. However, it does look like paper silver is getting squeezed, too:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/si...ailable-silver
As I understand it, SLV is the largest of the paper silver funds, and the one that was targeted by the Redditt mob. I would rather have the real stuff, however, as with gold.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Proof sets value is not that linked to the silver content of several of the coins. It is more the numismatic value.

I am seeing the shortages gradually get worse of both popular gold and silver coins with the bullion dealers.

The relationship between the "paper silver" and "physical silver" markets is something I have heard a lot of theories about but do not fully understand. Some people claim paper silver (and gold) is leveraged but others dispute that. However, it does look like paper silver is getting squeezed, too:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/si...ailable-silver
As I understand it, SLV is the largest of the paper silver funds, and the one that was targeted by the Redditt mob. I would rather have the real stuff, however, as with gold.

I have some not much paper silver, If I recall around the 1920's

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

This is continuing. Here is the inventory of two prominent precious metal dealers as to the stock of the most popular and common European coins. On both, EVERYTHING is sold out and it has been this way for days.

https://www.apmex.com/category/56666...ns-most-common

https://www.jmbullion.com/gold/gold-...ld-sovereigns/

On one of these sites, I did manage to get an order accepted over two weeks ago for four Belgian 20 franc Leopold II gold pieces at about $11 over spot, but they emailed and said there had been an inventory glitch and they did not have any. I got rather insistent that they come up with something within the Latin Monetary Union 20 franc / lira scheme as substitutes and fortunately they substituted some Austrian Franz Josef 8 florin / 20 franc pieces.

US common silver coins are also hit and miss now, although the premium over spot is such that I am not really looking at them as closely.

[easyrider Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close easyrider]

Something odd is happening to physical silver prices. If you can find any the premiums are way high. There is an ongoing short squeeze play happening even if Wall Street says there isn't. Spot price for physical has been on the rise. Demand for physical silver is currently unreal. It will be interesting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetb...ly_obvious_to/

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

Something odd is happening to physical silver prices. If you can find any the premiums are way high. There is an ongoing short squeeze play happening even if Wall Street says there isn't. Spot price for physical has been on the rise. Demand for physical silver is currently unreal. It will be interesting.

https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetb...ly_obvious_to/

I like actual coins, rather than bars or bullion coins, but the premium over spot on US coins has jumped a lot recently. I have found Canadian silver coins can be bought for less premium over spot when you can find them. I especially like the Canadian silver dollars. Canadian coins through 1967 are 80% silver and a dollar is .6000 ounce of silver, an easy figure to multiply to figure silver value. Gold premium over spot has not jumped so much, so I am often more inclined to buy gold when I can find the coins I want. I just found a new source that has some German 20 marks at a good price.

[easyrider Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close easyrider]

I like actual coins, rather than bars or bullion coins, but the premium over spot on US coins has jumped a lot recently. I have found Canadian silver coins can be bought for less premium over spot when you can find them. I especially like the Canadian silver dollars. Canadian coins through 1967 are 80% silver and a dollar is .6000 ounce of silver, an easy figure to multiply to figure silver value. Gold premium over spot has not jumped so much, so I am often more inclined to buy gold when I can find the coins I want. I just found a new source that has some German 20 marks at a good price.

I haven't bought anything for a while now. The sdb's are full. Someday someone I know will be smiling when they open our sdb's.

[easyrider Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close easyrider]

duplicat

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

I haven't bought anything for a while now. The sdb's are full. Someday someone I know will be smiling when they open our sdb's.

Had some funds I was not expecting yet come in today and wanted to put it in gold or silver while the market is in a dip. Now my source for German gold, that I just bought from, is out, and I could not find any bullion dealers that had any. Also came up empty on my other preferred gold coins - Austrian ducats, French Napolean III 20 francs, and Belgian 20 francs. Then I looked at bulk Canadian silver coins, and both of the sources I have used in the past are now out, one of which I had bought them from just a few days ago. I also can't find those anywhere else right now. I did find some British gold sovereigns, although a lot of dealers were out of those, too. I will probably pull the trigger on them tonight. Bulk US silver coins, as well as US gold coins still seem to have some availability but many specific products are sold out, and the premium over spot has really jumped on the silver.

[easyrider Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close easyrider]

Yes, the premiums are unbelievable. What is even more strange is the strong demand even with high premiums. I see adds for collectors offering good prices for silver and gold.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

So far, the premiums on gold are not as bad as silver, but silver is the metal most people think has the most potential gain. I think part of what is driving demand is fear of what might happen to the US dollar as a result of all the federal spending, but that problem exists in a number of other countries, too, at this juncture. We are also looking at select foreign currencies, perhaps Swiss francs, Norwegian kronor, Swedish kronor, or even some Polish zloty. It really takes some close study of other countries national finances and their economies. Swiss francs seem the easiest to move into and Norwegian kronor, which would be my first choice, the hardest. My wife and I want to limit what cash we have in dollars, but the trickiest part is the retirement funds and getting those out of dollars. There are outfits that advertise that you can hold retirement accounts in your physical possession in precious metals, but from my research, the legal basis to do that is iffy, and we do not want to take that risk.

My wife is particularly concerned about what is happening economically. When she was younger and living in eastern Europe she remembers one day where they woke up with enough money to buy an apartment but by afternoon of the same day it was only enough to buy a bicycle. Things can happen that quickly with an economy, and when it has happened to you once, you never forget it.

[Gabriellet Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gabriellet]

I don't know how about others, but I observe that gold is more stable than silver.

[Gabriellet Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Gabriellet]

I don't know how about others, but I observe that gold is more stable than silver. One of my friends invested in silver at the beginning of this year, and he lost almost all he invested. It's very risky to work with silver now. From my point of view, we must take into consideration I keep investing in it since 2019, and from that time, I have already made a nice profit. In all this, I was guided by experts in this domain, and they taught me a lot of valuable tips and tricks. It's better to keep money in gold than in a bank.