Email from the US Mint Acknowledges "Global Silver Shortage"

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. The 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 the remaining 2021 Morgan and Peace silver dollars that were originally scheduled for June 1 (Morgan Dollars struck at Denver (21XG) and San Francisco (21XF)) and June 7 (Morgan Dollar struck at Philadelphia (21XE) and the Peace Dollar (21XH)). While inconvenient to many, this deliberate delay will give the Mint the time necessary to obtain web traffic management tools to enhance the user experience. As the demand for silver remains greater than the supply, the reality is such that not everyone will be able to purchase a coin. However, we are confident that during the postponement, we will be able to greatly improve on our ability to deliver the utmost positive U.S. Mint experience that our customers deserve. We will announce revised pre-order launch dates as soon as possible."

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My added comments:  At this point it is hard to imagine why anyone would try to suggest we are not seeing substantial global investment investment demand for silver. I do see some commentary seeming to suggest that silver investment demand is not much higher than usual this year or that it will soon drop off and won't be sustained. But reports like this from the US Mint suggest demand is very high and they do not see any indication of it dropping off any time soon. 

Bullion dealers and silver mining executives are also reporting similar substantial demand for silver with no end in sight. We have multiple credible sources saying the same thing. Silver investment demand is very high with no end in sight. 

Meanwhile the WSS Reddit group continues to move towards the 100,000 member mark. This group's members are making a sustained effort to buy silver with no end in sight and is adding thousands of new member per month. Again, I don't why anyone would suggest investment demand for silver will not keep growing on a sustained basis with so much directly observable evidence to the contrary readily available.

Added note 6-2-2021: The Mint Issues a "clarification" email to explain they erred in their first email quoted above. Below is the new email which changes the wording to say they are experiencing a shortage of silver blanks to make coins rather than a shortage of silver. This is not a good look for the US Mint after saying the "global silver shortage" was the problem in the earlier email. Skeptics will jump on this to say the Mint is either deceitful or incompetent. Of course they admit their website is incapable of handling large numbers of online users trying to order their products as well. Again, not a good look.


"In a message released Friday, May 28, we made reference to a global shortage of silver. In more precise terms, the silver shortage being experienced by the United States Mint pertains only to the supply of silver blanks among suppliers to the U.S. Mint.

Please see the updated message below reflecting this clarification.

The United States Mint is committed to providing the best possible online experience to its customers. The Mint is being impacted by silver blank shortages among its suppliers. The demand for many of our bullion and numismatic products is at record heights and increasingly outpacing the supply of silver blanks available through our suppliers. 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 Silver Dollars 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 the remaining 2021 Morgan and Peace silver dollars that were originally scheduled for June 1 (Morgan Dollars struck at Denver (21XG) and San Francisco (21XF)) and June 7 (Morgan Dollar struck at Philadelphia (21XE) and the Peace Dollar (21XH)).

While inconvenient to many, this deliberate delay will give the Mint the time necessary to obtain web traffic management tools to enhance the user experience. As demand remains greater than supply, the reality is such that not everyone will be able to purchase a coin. However, we are confident that during the postponement, we will be able to greatly improve on our ability to deliver the utmost positive U.S. Mint experience that our customers deserve. We will announce revised pre-order launch dates as soon as possible."


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