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What a debacle! The G7 issues a rare statement on exchange rates that is intended to calm growing fears of an international currency war. Then they immediately turn around and start bickering amongst themselves about what it really meant . . . .

Did you hear the U.S. Mint just ran out of silver? In mid-January, the Mint suspended sale of the 2013 run of its popular U.S. “Eagles.”

The new silver Eagles sold out fast. They went on sale, and buyers bought everything they could lay hands on. Within days, the shelves at the Mint were stripped bare. It’s not the first time that this has happened . . . .

Central banks are not exactly short of things to worry about right now.The euro may well be on the road to a chaotic collapse, taking some of the world’s biggest banks with it. A currency war may break out between Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Printing money has run out of steam, but there is still little sign of the global economy returning to the kind of growth rates it saw before the credit crunch.

But in the long term what they should perhaps be most worried about is losing their monopoly on issuing money . . . .

The World Gold Council issued its 2012 year end Gold report this morning. The report shows that during 2012 the all-time record world gold demand was . . . .

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 . . . .

Sterling silver jewelry sales continued their strong performance during the recent Holiday Season, according to industry observers and early retail sales surveys. Retailers across the country reported . . . .

Late yesterday, the United States Mint informed authorized purchasers that the 2013 American Silver Eagle bullion coins had temporarily sold out. This comes only ten days after the coins were initially made available for ordering and following a three week period of unavailability due to the early sell out of the 2012-dated coins.

Sales of the 2013 Silver Eagle bullion coins will remain suspended until the Mint can build up an inventory of the coins . . . .