Silver Eagle Bullion Allocation to Drop Next Week

The United States Mint has cautioned authorized purchasers that the number of 2014 American Silver Eagle bullion coins available for allocation next week will be sharply lower.

The 2014-dated version of the popular silver bullion coin was first made available yesterday, January 13, 2014. From a weekly allocation of 3,575,000 coins, authorized purchasers had placed orders for 3,180,500 coins. Today, orders were placed for an additional 191,000 coins, leaving just 203,500 coins remaining from the weekly allocation.

For the coming week, the US Mint anticipates having between 500,000 to 600,000 coins available for allocation on Monday, January 20, 2014. Quantities are scheduled to increase in the next following week. Authorized purchasers were asked to plan accordingly.

The US Mint distributes bullion products through a small group of authorized purchasers. These primary dealers are able to purchase the gold or silver bullion coins directly from the Mint based on the precious metal value plus a fixed or percentage mark up. They are then responsible for distributing the coins to the broader market. During times when the available supply of bullion coins falls short of anticipated demand, the US Mint has imposed an allocation program which rations available quantities among the authorized purchasers.

American Silver Eagle bullion coins have been subject to allocation for nearly a year.

The US Mint has continued to offer gold bullion coins without allocation. Since the initial release on January 2, 2014, the 2014-dated American Gold Eagle bullion sales have reached 67,000 ounces and 2014-dated American Gold Buffalo bullion sales have reached 33,000 ounces.

For the year to date, the US Mint has fulfilled orders for the gold bullion coins entirely with 2014-dated coins. Starting next week, orders will be fulfilled with both 2014-dated and the remaining inventory of 2013-dated coins for the one ounce and one-tenth ounce size Gold Eagles and for the one ounce Gold Buffalo coins.