while i was a the ana show, I saw LOTS!! and I mean LOTS! of silver being sold to dealers. Then i looked at silver spot prices, and noticed that they have dropped about 50 cents. Do you think this is related to the all the silver sold at the ANA show? or something else.... monkeyman
Silver is a world commodity. What changed hands in Phoenix is a blip on the radar as far as the world is concerned.
While at the Auburn, MA show last Sunday there was a lot of silver being turned in to dealers. One guy brought so much bulk silver he had to use a hand truck [one of those suitcase dollys] to haul it in. Some of the dealers had old coin counting machines and they were clicking away. I wonder how many key dates got run through along with the common bulk.
Yup, I was at the same Auburn show and the counting machine that dealer had was constantly going almost up till the show closed at 2:30. I kept shuddering thinking that there were definitely some good quality coins being scratched up by that monster! I just can't imagine doing that to my coins. :headbang:
One futures contract is about 5,000 ounces of silver. I don't think the ANA show can influence the market price when thousands of contracts are traded daily.
Highly unlikely - when silver is produced at some 800 million ounces globally (I think I have that figure somewhat right) and with high silver recycling rate, if that show alone can affect silver prices, I will be shocked. It's usually the industries and jewelery sector that affects precious metals as they make up most of the demand. Here is a good site: http://www.silverinstitute.org/supply/index.php
I'm not disputing gxseries' figure of 800 million ounces but according to Coin World (March 17, 2008): Again, the amount of silver that changed hands in Phoenix is a drop in the ocean compared to the amounts mined and consumed across the world. Silver is a major component of photographic film. With the advent of digital photography film sales have nosedived. I wonder what the price of silver would be if there was still a big demand for silver for use in photographic film. (I used to shoot many rolls of film every year a couple of decades ago but now I only shoot digital. But film photography has not died entirely. There are still many professionals that shoot film. And things like X-Ray film are still used.)