Silver bullion coin demand has quadrupled in since 2007, says the U.S. Mint

Silver bullion coin demand  quadrupled between 2007 and 2013 the U.S. Mint noted in an eye-opening report this week explaining its silver “allocations” to authorized purchasers.

Here’s the table from the U.S. Mint:

The Mint said there is plenty of raw silver material available for purchase in the open market. However, periodic shortages of the blanks used for coin production do develop.

It attempts to manage its supplies in a “manner that ensures we have a sufficient number of coins to meet the weekly demand of our authorized purchasers,” it said. “When that demand exceeds our ability to acquire a sufficient number of blanks, we then go on allocation until our inventories can be rebuilt again and the supply of blanks increased so that time spent on allocation is minimized.”

Silver futures prices SIH4 +1.45% settled at $19.93 an ounce on Comex Thursday. They’re up about 59% from the $12.56 level at the start of 2007.

Source