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2011 Silver Eagle Bullion Coins Race to Record in May
June 3, 2011 by Darrin Lee Unser · Leave a Comment
Investors in May 2011 turned to American Silver Eagle bullion coins in record numbers even as silver prices suffered a marked decline from the thirty-one year highs seen in the previous month.
According to the United States Mint, its Authorized Purchasers ordered 3,653,500 of the investment grade strikes last month. This was more than enough to qualify it as the best May ever in sales. The .999 fine silver coins tallied up an increase of nearly 4.7% over May 2010, which had previously stood as the May record holder. More impressive, May 2011 now ranks as the fourth best month ever for the Silver Eagle bullion coin series which debuted back in November 1986.
American Silver Eagles continued their long series of monthly records that really began in 2009 as investors started looking to the coins as an alternative during economic uncertainties. In fact, of the current top ten monthly record holders, only one can be attributed to a year other than 2009, 2010 or 2011. The single anomaly is the hold-out of December 1986 — the first full month in which the US Mint offered the coins.
Top 10 Monthly Sales for Silver Eagle Bullion Coins
| 1 | January 2011 | 6,422,000 |
| 2 | November 2010 | 4,260,000 |
| 3 | December 1986 | 3,696,000 |
| 4 | May 2011 | 3,653,500 |
| 5 | May 2010 | 3,636,500 |
| 6 | January 2010 | 3,592,500 |
| 7 | March 2010 | 3,381,000 |
| 8 | February 2011 | 3,240,000 |
| 9 | October 2010 | 3,150,000 |
| 10 | March 2009 | 3,132,000 |
Many of the months shown in the table above came during a time when the Mint rationed Silver Eagles, as was the case last month. To help increase future supplies, the United States Mint said it would begin fulfilling bullion orders with San Francisco minted Silver Eagles, in addition to coins produced at West Point. It had been a decade since the coins were minted in San Francisco, as West Point had taken over the full production of Silver Eagle bullion coins in 2001.
May’s record came as silver slid from the thirty-one year highs seen in April when the London price for the precious metal reached as high as $48.70 an ounce. Averaging prices out for last month has the white metal at $36.75 an ounce, or $11.95 lower than where it peaked during the previous month.
Still, investors looked to the one ounce Silver Eagle as a tangible option for their portfolios and pushed the total number sold for the year to 18,901,500. With seven months remaining, 2011 already ranks as the 4th best year for them. If demand continues on its current trend, the year will easily smash the current all-time annual record set just last year when 34,662,500 were purchased.
