New Tightness Looms on Minted Gold & Silver

It’s happening again. Even before the conflagration occurred in Washington DC last week, retail demand for gold and silver had been rising sharply since late last year.

Bullion.Directory precious metals analysis 11 January, 2021
By Stefan Gleason
President of Money Metals Exchange

Add last week’s extraordinary events to the mix – fear of what the incoming Biden presidency will do, aggressive crackdowns by social media giants, and calls for a last-minute impeachment of President Trump – and we’re now seeing skyrocketing demand for just about everything sold at MoneyMetals.com, including over this past weekend.

It’s looking like early last year all over again.

So does this mean you should expect shortages and rising premiums once again – combined with shipping delays?

Hopefully not. But there’s a growing risk of strains, especially at Money Metals’ weaker competitors.

Don’t forget… very few Americans, still, own even a single ounce of silver or gold.

A change in psychology toward gold and silver – and its value as a hedge against the growing array of risks – could completely clean out the U.S. market in days.

Large commercial bars are not limitless, but the most immediate problem will be limited mint capacity and other production bottlenecks.

To be sure, private mints have upped their production capabilities in the past year, having recently encountered the most demand they’ve seen in many years. But there still isn’t much slack.

Meanwhile, government mints are generally not as well run as their private counterparts. They’re run by bureaucrats and don’t respond quickly to market needs – partly because there’s no profit motive involved in government “enterprises.”

We’re already seeing tightness relating to some of the new 2021 coin releases, such as Gold Eagles, Gold Maples, and Gold Buffalos. Privately minted silver could be next.

At Money Metals, we’ve already moved quickly to beef up our inventory levels on all manner of coins, bars, and rounds. We are stocked up on just about everything right now, and we’re working hard to stay that way.

Leveraging our large buying power and strong balance sheet, we’ve made some arrangements with our minting and wholesale partners to keep our inventory levels high.

Our fulfillment department is staffed up and has the capacity to ship literally tens of thousands of orders per month.

Bottom line, Money Metals, at least for now, is able to handle smoothly the rising surges we’ve been seeing in the retail bullion market. Our premiums are still relatively low – and we hope to keep them that way as long as possible.

We deeply appreciate the loyalty of our great Money Metals Exchange customers – and we stand ready to meet and hopefully exceed their expectations.

This article was originally published here

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