As Silver Shortage Intensifies, More Retail Products Disappear

King World News
By Eric King

Today 41-year veteran Bill Haynes told King World News the silver shortage is becoming more evident and it is now impacting premiums of retail silver products his company sells.  Haynes stated, “… what we’re seeing in the premium action suggests that (silver) is going into short supply.”

Haynes also said it is causing inventory at wholesalers in the silver market to dry up.  He went to discuss what the unprecedented buying will mean going forward.  Here is what Haynes had to say:  “It seems this week we had existing clients adding to their positions.  It’s amazing, these are people that (already) own gold at $300, $400, silver below $10, and they are still adding to their positions at these levels.”

Bill Haynes continues:

“They fully understand what is going on.  These are people reading King World News, and they are adding to their positions.  The shortage of silver eagles has really impacted the retail market because it’s moved people to other products.

Silver eagles are hugely popular.  In 2012, the (US) Mint shipped almost 34 million.  In 2011, the (US) Mint shipped almost 40 million, the Mint’s biggest year ever.  Prior to the global crisis, in 2008, (sales of) 10 million silver eagles was (considered) a huge year for the US Mint.

So you can see how the financial state of affairs is impacting people buying this one high premium product….

“The Royal Canadian Mint is (also) running low on its silver maple leafs, with a little upward pressure on their premiums.  But the buying that caused the (US) Mint to run out of silver eagles didn’t come out of nowhere.  Over the past few weeks we’ve seen junk silver coins virtually dry up at wholesalers.

One thing I would point out here about the 90% coins (junk silver), the first 3 decades of my being in this business it was a staple.  Eric, 20 years ago if somebody wanted 100 bags (of junk silver) I could have filled that order with one phone call to any one of five places.

Now, if somebody said, ‘I want 100 bags of 90%,’ there is no wholesaler that will fill the order.  And there is no dealer that will short the coins to us (lock in the transaction price with a hedge) on a deal like that, hoping the coins will come in at a later date because they don’t know what the premium on these coins is going to be.

So I see the 90% coins continuing to have a solid premium until silver reaches probably the $40 range, and some members of the public will start to turn loose of their coins.  But so far, what we’re seeing in the premium action suggests that (silver) is going into short supply. Egon (von Greyerz also) talked about how any time a quantity of (physical) silver shows up, somebody buys it, and understandably so.”

This was just a small portion of the type of critical information which is covered each week in the KWN Weekly Metals Wrap with Bill Haynes and Dan Norcini.  To hear a continuation of this conversation, you can listen to the entire interview by CLICKING HERE.