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2011 Silver Eagle Bullion Coin Sales Record Best Ever April
May 9, 2011 by Darrin Lee Unser · Leave a Comment
Bullion American Silver Eagle coins continued to sell at a record pace in April 2011 as silver spent most of the month racing to fresh thirty-one year highs.
April 2011 ranks as the 13th best month for the .999 fine silver coins, and the best ever April. Sales were 1.9 percent higher than in March 2011 and 12.4 percent more than the same period last year.
United States Mint Authorized Purchasers (APs) ordered 2,819,000 Silver Eagles last month, blasting it into the best April category by a margin of over 300,000 coins. Year-to-date sales were 15.248 million, on target to top the record 2010 annual sales of 34,662,500 — despite that APs are limited in the amounts they may order due to Mint rationing.
2009 held the previous April record which, at the time, was quite an accomplishment with United States Mint registered sales of 2,518,000. In fact, Silver Eagle sales were so impressive then that April 2009 finished as the fourth top month since the series start in 1986.
Times have changed in the last few years. Bullion sales that were once impressive now seem almost commonplace. April 2009 currently ranks as the 19th best month, falling 15 slots in just 24 months. The drastic drop indicates much higher demand for Silver Eagle as investors appear uncertain of the economy and are selecting physical holdings in silver as a safe-haven.
A review of the top fifteen monthly bullion sales shows that all except one of the records were established in the last two and a half years. The only exception being December 1986 which currently holds the number three spot. Brisk sales then can be attributed to the fact that it was the first full month in which Silver Eagles were available. The United States Mint introduced the series just a few days earlier.
Top 15 Monthly Silver Eagle Bullion Coin Sales
| 1 | January 2011 | 6,422,000 |
| 2 | November 2010 | 4,260,000 |
| 3 | December 1986 | 3,696,000 |
| 4 | May 2010 | 3,636,500 |
| 5 | January 2010 | 3,592,500 |
| 6 | March 2010 | 3,381,000 |
| 7 | February 2011 | 3,240,000 |
| 8 | October 2010 | 3,150,000 |
| 9 | March 2009 | 3,132,000 |
| 10 | June 2010 | 3,001,000 |
| 11 | July 2010 | 2,981,000 |
| 12 | October 2009 | 2,939,000 |
| 13 | April 2011 | 2,819,000 |
| 14 | July 2009 | 2,810,000 |
| 15 | December 2009 | 2,773,500 |
Silver did extremely well last month. The London fix for the precious metal started off at $37.63 an ounce and closed out the month at $48.70 an ounce. As a comparison, the precious metal stood at an average of $18.10 an ounce during the entire month last year.
