Silver Shortage???????

didnt i tell you not to buy 100 tons of silver? look what happened now

 

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There may be a shortage of silver <<in the form that coin collectors want>>. There is NOT a silver shortage worldwide. One single company that makes intensive use of silver uses more silver than all the coin collectors worldwide do.

You don't make silver rounds or ASE's for manufacturing companies use.

 

The truth is a little more complicated than just saying there is or is not a "shortage" worldwide. There can never be a real "shortage" in a free market because price will always balance supply and demand unless there are price controls. What can be said is that the price will continue to rise in order to drive the marginal manufacturer and collector out of the market so that the amount avaliable equals the amount sold. It can be no other way. Whatever label you put on it, the probability is high that the price of silver will continue to climb to keep things in balance.

 

The question is do we have a free market? Probably not.

 

To the extent is is not free, it seems that the price is lower than it should be -- not higher. This situation favors the long term holder of silver who can accumulate silver at below free market prices. Personally, I don't think the market is manipulated, but it might be somewhat distorted by the tremendously large shorting of silver taking place in the futures market. It's been like this for some time, and the price has been gradually rising in a volitile manner for years now.

 

No Real Shortage

As a holder of many ounces of silver both privately struck and mint issued, I find that there is a shortage of "cheap" silver. I'm not selling and neither are most collectors/investors I know. Thousands of ounces were bought in the Spring of 2008 in the $16 - $20 range and those ounces are not going to be resold at the current level. The only silver I see being offered for sale are family holdings of what is commonly called "junk silver". The economy is forcing a lot folks to part with their old silver coins.

The shortage will disappear overnight when silver once again passes the $20 benchmark. For me, $25 will get me motivated to part with commonest of my goodies, Silvertown and the like.

As for ASE's, they have become a mainstream collectible, shedding the orginial purpose of putting a precious metal in the citizen's hands. Watch eBay and visit coin shows, they are going for $19+ and the 1996 in the $60 range. Only collector value can sustain these prices. They are no longer mere bullion.