We just received word, the US Mint has suspended sales of the 1 oz Gold American Eagles until further notice and are not accepting new orders from precious metals dealers. This is in addition to the shortage of 1 oz Silver American Eagles.
This comes at a time when many investors around the nation are scrambling to locate silver bullion and US gold coins while prices are attractively low. These low prices seem to be one of the driving factors in this recent shortage, as investor demand has dramatically increased.
Now, The Good News.
APMEX still has very limited quantities of the 2008 - 1 oz Gold American Eagles in stock and ready for immediate shipment to our customers. If you have recently placed an order with us, you can be confident your items have been reserved for you, set aside and are awaiting your shipment date.
For the time being, fractional gold (1/10 oz, ¼ oz and ½ oz Gold American Eagles) remain unaffected by the shortage. APMEX customers are encouraged to take advantage of the low spot prices by purchasing the following items currently in stock and ready for immediate shipment.
Gold Investors:
- 2008 1 oz Gold Maple Leafs – very limited supply
- 2008 1 oz Gold American Eagles – very limited supply
- 1 oz Credit Suisse Bars – very limited supply
- 2008 Silver Maple Leafs – priced the same as the 2008 Silver American Eagles
- 90% Bag Silver Coins – roughly 712 oz of pure silver
Thanks for the RSS feeds. They are great! WOW, I can't believe the mint is out of gold too? Times are changin...
It is amazing that the futures market is dropping as it is, now gold is below $800/oz, and yet there is no shortage of buying physical product. Anyone else see the disconnect?
I just think it's strange. Most metals are sold out. Now the US Mint stopped.
Eh?
I think this is pure manipulation. If everything is so sold out the prices should be UP not down.
Very strange financial days we live in.
That's REALLY strange - does anybody know why? Is something bad about to happen in the world? (i.e. Iran)
How does apmex make money selling at such manipulated 'cheap' prices? 12.84 on silver...down 6$ in 3 weeks.
BULL SH1T !!!
No such notice on U.S mint site.
MISSLEADING article the mint has stated that some of the 2007 gold bullion will be suspended from future sales
Thank You All for your comments. We understand that the latest news was disturbing to some and confusing to others. The latest news is due in part to significant manufacturing delays by private and government mints... they simply can’t keep up with the unprecedented demands of the market. Let us a address a few of the concerns you have so far:
1. The US Mint has not published this information on their website (we checked again this morning). The news of the US Mint suspending sales and future orders has also been confirmed by Mint Distributors, as well as numerous other dealers. This is a hot discussion right now on various precious metals forums and blogs. We are simply trying to provide information as it becomes available. We were the first to report this information.
2. You are absolutely correct – this situation is strange and doesn’t fit the “normal” supply & demand economic model. However, this is the way it is right now. We don’t have control over the commodities market, so we are in this boat with you. We are not in the position to speculate as to the reasons why this situation has occurred. A variety of theories are being debated in the forums.
3. Some local dealers may seemingly have some product left. This is mostly due to the low volumes that they sell and carry on a regular basis. At APMEX, we sell and ship thousands of ounces of physical metal every day. Local dealers may have some products left for the moment, but may either pull product to prevent losses, dramatically increase premiums to cover themselves or will sell out very quickly when they cannot replenish their supplies from larger national dealers like APMEX.
4. APMEX has not, does not and will not pull product simply because prices are low. We are professionals and have a responsibility to our customers to provide products in demand (as fast as we can secure them) at a reasonable market price. We have structured our business to be able to weather the variables in market conditions, while still providing the expert services and competitive prices for our customers.
At APMEX, we understand your dilemma and are doing everything we can to secure more products for you. We are not manipulating or misleading the information we are sharing with you. As customers, you are very valuable to us and we believe you have a desire and need to know the truth about the precious metals market to best serve your own personal interests.
I do not want to cause any misunderstanding. However, I must mentioned that for the past 2 weeks I have been on APMEX Gold and Silver categories, and only starting 2 days ago the smaller size products such as 1 oz gold and silver 10 oz etc starting to disappear for offering. This is also the same time as these metal prices started to dropped to today. Maybe consumers bought all these smaller ones in the last two days....again, I'm not here to leave an accusation!
The best way to handle this is to buy either the silver (SLV) or the gold (GLD) ETF in the stock market and wait until the physical metal gets available and then swap (sell the ETF and buy the physical). The silver ETF trades about $.20 below spot whereas APMEX is about $.30 to $.40 above spot on their 90% coins right now. APMEX will usually trades their 90% around (somtimes below) spot. Just wait for them to do that and then make your swap.
in addition to this i talked to the mint the other day and they have also suspended sales of all platinum products.including the 2007 10th ann.sets. I dont beleive there to be a shortage of gold,(after all,you can still find it in streams and rivers all across the nation).I beleive this is due to how much it costs to mint the product,and the resent price drop in precious medals.they probably cannot cover their cost's.this is only my opinion,but it would explain why.
I think they want you trick you into selling your gold and silver. The dollar going up all of a sudden doesn't make sense. What has happened
differently from 2 months ago until now. Banks are still in trouble losing billions. When things don't go their way they can exploit it. It only proves what we have known all along... The markets seem to be rigged. The banks own a lot of gold and silver. Maybe they are being forced to sell because they are seeking capital anyway they can get it !!
I too was confused by the low price and low availability, until someone explaned it to me. Places like Kitco and APMEx may be pulling there stock from retail sale. They may be specualting the price will quickly rebound and don't want to sell for sub $800 prices of today. Retail stores, like Apmex, are like inverstors too - why should they sell inventory at a reduced price when they can wait it out? I am not suggesting that APMEx is withholding, but some places may be.
Time will straigten it all out. Some people are saying gold will drop to sub $750/ounce until after the election, then rebound to above $1200/ounce. Who knows?
Say your sitting on a few thousand oz of gold at $900/oz. Gold drops below $800/oz. Are you going to sell your inventory and take a $100 LOSS ???? OF COURSE NOT!!! You try to buy at below $800 and sell that. You sit on your inventory and hope and pray it goes back to near $900.
Trust me, if Gold goes to $880 all of a sudden everyone will have inventory to sell.
Hey, I bought what I could from APMEX... wish I had a little more liquidity to have bought more. I really think your conspiracy theory is wrong, APMEX didn't pull their stock they sold it!!!! Check out the real price at the US Mint for a 2008 1OZ Gold American Eagle $1,119.95!!! Big disconnect between the paper price and the real deal.
http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&categoryId=13238&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=10191&top_category=10191
I agree with the previous commenter. I for one drained my stock portfolio over the past two weeks and bought all the gold and silver from APMEX that I could. They're not holding out, they're just sold out.
I've traded for several years with Apmex. Apmex is NOT a speculator; I am. They publish buy and sell prices. This is the spread and their profit. . . No hocus pocus.
The dollar rising is natural. Our economy sucks soo bad the rest of the world is catching Pneumonia from our bronchitis. Their Banks are in trouble too. So they now have to print money,money,money. As for the shortage and lower prices? More people invest in paper (fake)gold and silver (ETF,ADR,pool accounts...) NOT the bullion, So the demand can be driven by the other investment vehicle because investors in fake gold and silver are choosing today to get into money.money.money.
dl
Does anyone have or can post a copy of the letter/memo that the Mint is said to have sent to dealers, according to the Wall Street Journal, about the suspension of the selling of the gold coins in question? The Mint has yet to confirm that this is true, and no one has generated a copy of the memo said to have gone out (which seems a bit odd with the power of the internet). This may clarify what is going on exactly, and could explain why. So any dealers out there...did you receive a memo?
Dear APMEX:
There is currently a big disconnect between the futures/spot market of silver, and the retail market of silver. I don't know why but why can't some one utilize this disconnect and make money from it.
In the past APMEX has sold APMEX branded silver rounds. Why can't you do it again? APMEX can pre-sale APMEX branded silver rounds, and immediately acquire the physical silver from the spot market, or acquire the next month silver future contract and then demand delivery. And then you can melt down those 1000 ounce bullions and mint 1 ounce silver rounds. You profit from the spread.
Of course, if APMEX does this, it will deviate from its long term policy of only selling products which is readily available. But I do not see a problem with it as long as APMEX made it clear to customers that they will have to wait for their order. In that way APMEX can sell two categories of precious metal products, one is immediately available, another is one that has to wait for delivery.
How about mint some palladium coins as no one in the world now mint palladium coin any more. Any thoughts?
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