Production of United States Mint American Eagle Silver Proof and Uncirculated Coins has been temporarily suspended because of unprecedented demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins. Currently, all available silver bullion blanks are being allocated to the American Eagle Silver Bullion Coin Program, as the United States Mint is required by Public Law 99-61 to produce these coins “in quantities sufficient to meet public demand . . . .”
Due to the continued, sustained demand for American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins, 2009-dated American Eagle Silver Uncirculated Coins were not produced.
The United States Mint will resume the American Eagle Silver Proof and Uncirculated Coin Programs once sufficient inventories of silver bullion blanks can be acquired to meet market demand for all three American Eagle Silver Coin products.
Well that message has been up since July. The reports of how many silver eagles and bullion that has sold over the last few months, show a marked decrease! I am finding, people think it is due to demand being down, when they look at the chart of sales on message boards. What is more amazing is... Take a look at their Inventory of AVAILABLE COINS FOR SALE FROM THE MINT:
Notice anything strange?
Like there are NO Eagles Available in ANY Form. Also notice what coins they do have available - most are circulating coins that are not all gold or silver. In fact there are only 5 coins available that have gold in them - those are 1/2 ounces ones on the front page. What about pure silver ones? Well good luck finding one available. The silver dollars for sale - notice they do NOT say 1 oz .999 pure silver on them.
People need to Look at the Real Situation of what is going on with Silver - the supply of physical is basically non-existent at the comex.
This site as an interesting look at what the law is in the U.S. Mint providing Gold and Silver coins to the public as the Mint states on their website.
Portion:
WHAT DOES THE LAW ACTUALLY SAY?
However, many contend that the 'domestic supply' law doesn't actually exist for silver, but has been confused with a different law on the books for gold, PUBLIC LAW 99-185—DEC. 17, 1985 99 STAT. 1179.
“(4) The Secretary shall acquire gold for the coins issued under section 5112(i) of this title by purchase of gold mined from natural deposits in the United States, or in a territory or possession of the United States, within one year after the month in which the ore from which it is derived was mined."
There is no mention of silver in this law. In fact, the only mention we found for silver supply chain requirements comes from Title 31 U.S.C. § 5112 : US Code - Section 5112: Denominations, specifications, and design of coins:
"(C) Sources of bullion. - The Secretary shall obtain silver for minting coins under subparagraph (B) from available resources, including stockpiles established under the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act."
With respect to the law on the books for gold, the phrase "available resources" is somewhat ambiguous. Are there any qualifiers to an "available resource"?
This ambiguity is so serious that in 2002 Representative Frank Lucas of Oklahoma proposed the Silver Eagle Coin Continuation Act of 2002 (H.R. 4846) to the House of Representatives "to amend title 31, United States Code, to clarify the sources of silver for bullion coins, and for other purposes."
On June 25, 2002, this bill passed the house by a count of 417 Ayes to 1 No (16 Abstain) and moved onto the Senate as S. 2594 [107th]: Support of American Eagle Silver Bullion Program Act.
However, the Senate referred this legislation to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, where it has since remained, and has never been signed into law.
So where does that leave the situation? It apparently leaves us with an ambiguous law that is open to interpretation by the only party with the authority to make one - the Treasury Department.
We will discover the ramifications soon enough. If the United States Mint decides not to source in the open market or tap into strategic reserves, the data would indicate that there will be extreme domestic shortages.
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