Anyone experiencing silver bullion shortages at local coin dealers?

[jim4silver]

I have been reading for a while that there are silver shortages (physical metals), so say the pundits. And also there is the fact that the US mint appears to be limiting how many ASEs are being made and sold to distributors due to some issue with their supplier of the silver blanks.

At my local coin stores there seems to be plenty of silver bars, 90% and 40%, and over-priced past years ASEs. Anyone see any shortages from your local dealers?

If there really are the shortages that these pundits talk about, it may be a good time to convert some gold bullion into silver bullion?

Jim

 

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[Immy]

Just called my local dealer and told him I'd soon be in the market to buy one ounce rounds/ten ounce bars and do they anticipate stock shortages. They said their supply is just fine (pardon the pun) even for 100 oz.-ers.

 

[jim4silver]

Just called my local dealer and told him I'd soon be in the market to buy one ounce rounds/ten ounce bars and do they anticipate stock shortages. They said their supply is just fine (pardon the pun) even for 100 oz.-ers.

Same here. I was at my local coin shop a week or so ago to buy some 10% bars and he had a nice supply of 10s and 100s.

Jim

 

[Treasure-Slut]

Any time is a good time to convert gold into silver since silver has out-performed gold in annual percent increase for quite a while now. Even the big gold guys on the radio have their 2 seconds of addimittance that they like silver better =P

Anyway, there is a thread with this same title on every PM forum I have been on...there ARE shortages in some places and shortages of specific types of silver but overall you can find it. I have called some places around my area who seem to never have anything. The guy I go to regularly usually has to save me stuff because he moves things so quickly and one of his main suppliers has dried up so he doesnt always have bullion but usually has 90%. Then of course the whole silver eagle debacle is universal.

I'd say there are certain strains in certain places but its not quite everywhere or very intense. The market is really taking a beating right now though and now the puppet news media HAS to say something so the sheeple are beggining to wise up to the fact that they need to do SOMETHING to combat this hyper-inflation. So demand will most likely be on a steady rise thus creating silver shortages. Another thing that may contribute to the talk of shortages is that many online companies have run out of many forms of silver and they remain out of stock for a while. Also, companies that hold silver and give you an I.O.U. take up to months before delivering customer's silver upon request of the physical metal. This leads many to believe that these companies don't actually have all of the silver they pass out certificates for and have to scramble around to try and fill out an order when its made. So the silver could actually be alot scarcer than we think because alot of bigtime holders only have the paper and no proof that there is physical silver to back it up. Thus the price is manipulated down.

Silver is also an industrial metal and there are many nations consuming more and more of it. Also no major silver finds for quite some time. So the supply gets used up as opposed to gold which is always recycled for jewlery and such. So the supply will remain stagnant or lessening while demand only has the opportunity to rise. Shortages are quite possible in the near future if they are not fully manifested today.

 

[jewelerdave]

There is a lot of silver recycling as well. Although there are not many primary silver mines there is a lot of silver recovered secondary in mining operations of other metals.
Most silver that is newly mined is from copper/gold/lead/zinc/nickel etc. Most ores have a mis mash of all kinds of things in them.

take a look at any huge commercial mega mines production records and once they clean everything out of the metal. They may have
100,000 tons of copper
50,000 oz silver
12,000 oz gold
200 oz Pt group metals

Those are just numbers I pulled from no where but most will be in a decreasing order like that. All that silver gold and everything else also just ends up on the market and used somewhere.

Silver shortages may come up but the best cure for high prices has always been high prices. if silver hits $30 to $50 per ounce, you bet you will see silver mines reopen and exploration.
Or, like the hunt bros found out. Junk silver and old stuff will flood the market crashing the price.

keep in mind, silver was used for currency world wide, and a lot of it is still in that form. people start mining there closets cupboards and coin collections and all the sudden tons show up. how long this resource will last is unknown, but it is also unknown how much is stashed by investors.

Silver is used all over the place. Still in photos, Some electronics etc. Did you know that mos lap tops keyboards have about a 1/5th gram in that contact plastic sheet.

So silver is used industrially for many things but it could be a while before real shortages show up.

Also, if prices get too high, substitutes are found. silver coinage was replaced by copper and nickel, And for most solder contacts silver was replaced by tin. As more of the industrial usages cut costs and make products that are disposable after just a few years, They dont have to be built to last, so why use the silver? Digital photography and ink has replaced a lot of silver too.

Example, if a computer slot had gold on it, it was ment to last for decades, If the life of that computer is only going to be say 2 to 3 years. They use a cheap tin wash rather than gold.

Things just balance out eventually.

 

[jim4silver]

There is a lot of silver recycling as well. Although there are not many primary silver mines there is a lot of silver recovered secondary in mining operations of other metals.
Most silver that is newly mined is from copper/gold/lead/zinc/nickel etc. Most ores have a mis mash of all kinds of things in them.

take a look at any huge commercial mega mines production records and once they clean everything out of the metal. They may have
100,000 tons of copper
50,000 oz silver
12,000 oz gold
200 oz Pt group metals

Those are just numbers I pulled from no where but most will be in a decreasing order like that. All that silver gold and everything else also just ends up on the market and used somewhere.

Silver shortages may come up but the best cure for high prices has always been high prices. if silver hits $30 to $50 per ounce, you bet you will see silver mines reopen and exploration.
Or, like the hunt bros found out. Junk silver and old stuff will flood the market crashing the price.

keep in mind, silver was used for currency world wide, and a lot of it is still in that form. people start mining there closets cupboards and coin collections and all the sudden tons show up. how long this resource will last is unknown, but it is also unknown how much is stashed by investors.

Silver is used all over the place. Still in photos, Some electronics etc. Did you know that mos lap tops keyboards have about a 1/5th gram in that contact plastic sheet.

So silver is used industrially for many things but it could be a while before real shortages show up.

Also, if prices get too high, substitutes are found. silver coinage was replaced by copper and nickel, And for most solder contacts silver was replaced by tin. As more of the industrial usages cut costs and make products that are disposable after just a few years, They dont have to be built to last, so why use the silver? Digital photography and ink has replaced a lot of silver too.

Example, if a computer slot had gold on it, it was ment to last for decades, If the life of that computer is only going to be say 2 to 3 years. They use a cheap tin wash rather than gold.

Things just balance out eventually.

JewelerDave,

If there ever is a real shortage, I don't think it will come because of industrial demand but instead would be the result of investor demand.

Like you said, industry can find substitutes for certain uses. But investors will demand real silver. We are not there yet, although there has been some stories circulating about how the ASE program has been backlogged due to insufficient silver supplies.

I don't forsee a real shortage unless JoeSixPack and/or foreign investors start demanding silver as an investment vehicle. Due to gold's high price relative to silver (the historical 16 to 1 ratio is out of whack), I see a better chance of silver making higher percentage gains than gold. Also, psychologically, newer investors would probably prefer to hold 50 ounces of metal in their hands as opposed to one if they had a choice and about 1000 bucks to spend on metals.

As far as hidden silver coming out as the price goes up, I believe that alot have already done that. Everytime I have been at my local coin dealer in the past 8 months the place is packed with people selling silverware, rings, etc. Noninvestors only have so much silver packed away. Just like people who unload old silver coin stashes at their bank. Once it is gone it's gone.

I believe we are in for some bad economic times that will continue for a while. Thus, much of the silver being held by non silver bugs will be cashed in once we break our most recent high of approx. $21 or so I believe. I think the rise from $25 to $40 will be quicker than the rise from $5 to $20.

Jim

 

[Lasivian]

Maybe it's time the recovered all the silver used at Oak Ridge.

Amount of silver in tons once used at the Oak Ridge, TN, Y-12 Plant for electrical magnet coils: 14,700

During WW2 there was a copper shortage, so they use silver instead.

It's still there.

 

[rmptr]

Gosh, I think silver may be good investment for common man, where gold may be pricey... maybe.

It would be just about 25yrs ago I had a stack of silver bars I'd bought from a fellow who was reclaiming from solutions used by film developers. (Remember B & W film?? believe I paid $9 an ounce for the bars...

Twenty years later, I would have just about doubled my money now...

It's been so long now that I off'ed that pile I can't remember when.
I bought tools, started a business, or two, and did well, off and on, for years, using those tools.

IMO, metal is a safe investment, as my figures clearly show.
(Sorry, I have not factored in cost of living increases, basic inflation.)

There's little that will substitute for actually being productive.

I was always impressed by the simplicity of Frederic Bastiat's statement...
"Only by constant application of labor to natural resources does society prosper."

Best