Barry Stuppler

The U.S. Mint resumed sales after a week of suspension as silver coins sales for January almost doubled compared with the month before. An all-time high of over 7.4 million Silver Eagle coins were bought in January from the U.S. Mint, which substantially exceeded the former record set in early 2011. Gold coin sales were also the highest seen in almost three years.

All of this excitement in the coin market is happening against the backdrop of . . . .

With Germany and other European countries planning to repatriate their gold reserves from the United States, dealers believe this might open up business opportunities for the gold depository at the Hong Kong airport. Dealers in Hong Kong said the European action showed mainland China might also need to consider whether it was a good idea to shift back its gold stored in the US and other countries . . . .

Silver’s gaining popularity as an investment asset. Silver’s drawing more and more attention as an investment these days, especially from China. That appetite has made silver bulls giddy and lifted prices closer to a record . . . .

Last week the U.S. Mint announced that it had run out of its initial production of 2013 Silver Eagles and that new shipments would not be available until late January. At that point, sales are expected to be resumed under an allocation process. The Mint has used an allocation process to ration available supplies amongst their primary distributors in the past, as opposed to allowing the distributors to buy as many as they want or need . . . .