Gold & Silver Education Center

Recently I received the email below from the US Mint. In the email they acknowledge that "the global silver shortage has driven demand for many or our bullion and numismatic products to record heights." I added the underline below for emphasis. "The United States Mint is committed to providing the best possible online experience to its customers. T he global silver shortage has driven demand for many of our bullion and numismatic products to record heights . This level of demand is felt most acutely by the Mint during the initial product release of numismatic items. Most recently in the pre-order window for 2021 Morgan Dollar with Carson City privy mark (21XC) and New Orleans privy mark (21XD), the extraordinary volume of web traffic caused significant numbers of Mint customers to experience website anomalies that resulted in their inability to complete transactions. In the interest of properly rectifying the situation, the Mint is postponing the pre-order windows for t...

It seems that more and more creative ways to use silver are being explored. One determined poster in the Wall Street Silver forum actually came up with a list of 100 uses for silver . One interesting new potential use is described in a recent publication released by the Silver Institute . They ask if battery free wearables might be part of our future. Below is an excerpt from the publication explaining how silver factors in to the equation. Are Battery-Free Wearables Possible?  "What if wearables could be powered by electricity generated by the body’s own heat?  Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) are studying whether an ordinary thermocouple -- two different pieces of metal that generate electricity when sandwiched together in the presence of heat -- could generate enough electrical energy to operate a wearable device like heart rate or blood pressure monitors without the need for batteries.  Thermocouples are common in devices like fire a...

  Silver is a key component used in solar panels and may also emerge as an important catalyst for new and improved long life batteries. Solar power generation systems need long life batteries to store energy for use when the sun isn't shining. Clearly there is plenty of reason to believe that demand for silver for use in solar power systems will be strong in the coming years. In this article we will review offer up some excellent articles and resources on this topic. We'll start with this Barron's article on the potential impact on silver from the growing use o solar panels. here is an excerpt: "Goldman Sach’s Mikhail Sprogis explained in a note last month that  silver is a key component in the solar industry , which is poised for big growth. Solar investments account for 18% of silver industrial demand and about 10% of overall demand for the metal. Sprogis has a $30 price target on it." . . . . .  "Goldman estimates solar installation will jump 50% from 20...

Those who closely follow the precious metals markets know that there has been some reporting and analysis on the upcoming Basel III rules that will make it harder for banks to utilize unallocated gold assets as they have in the past. The new rules make it clear that allocated gold must be held in order for the asset to be viewed as equal to cash. Andrew Maguire has commented on this situation for some time and talked about it in detail in this recent video update . He believes this will impact the price of gold upwards as the new rules are implemented. He thinks this will also spill over and positively impact the price of silver. There is some debate as to how much this may impact the gold market, but most agree the situation should be watched closely.  Jim Rickards recently posted on his Twitter feed that he does not see Basel III as having a major impact. In this recent deep dive article on Goldmoney.com , Alasdair Macleod provides an analysis on what is actually about to happe...

 Silver Chart on 5-17-21 courtesy of stockcharts.com This chart pretty much speaks for itself. Silver is clearly ready to test $30 again. Click Chart to Enlarge Home    About Us    Gold&Silver Market info      Metals News      Coin Info      One Gold Info

If you follow the silver market, you already know that demand for silver is very high this year. In this recent interview article with Coin Week , US Mint officials confirmed what many had suspected -- namely that they simply cannot get enough silver planchets (blanks used to make coins) to meet public demand and also that they have allocated silver eagles this year to parcel out a limited supply that falls below consumer demand. Below are the relevant quotes from the article where US Mint officials acknowledge they will not meet public demand in 2021. (I added underline for emphasis). "As for the planned use of product rather than mintage limits, Ryder (US Mint Director) explained that it was necessary to limit this year’s maximum to 175,000 for each Morgan and 200,000 for the Peace dollar because of the unprecedented demand for silver, which has resulted in the need to allocate  American Silver Eagle  production and has put the Mint “between a rock and a hard place.” . . . ...

$50 Coming? There is an interesting situation unfolding related to the bullion silver eagles produced by the US Mint. Is it possible a combination of factors is lining up that could actually lead to 2021 silver eagles selling as high as $50 by this summer? It's not out of the question whether the price of silver goes much higher or not. Here's why. In 2020, the US Mint struggled like everyone else trying to work around the COVID pandemic. The Mint endured multiple shut downs, impacting its ability to produce all its coins including silver eagles. Meanwhile, the Mint had also announced that for the first time since they began selling silver eagles in 1986, they would change the design on the reverse side of the coin. The original heraldic version of the eagle would be replaced with a new design .  Everyone assumed that this would mean the Mint would start out in 2021 with the new version of the silver eagle and end the old design in 2020. Surprisingly, they announced that becaus...