2015 American Silver Eagle Bullion Sales Temporarily Suspended

On Tuesday, July 7, the U.S. Mint temporarily ended sales of its most popular bullion product, the American Silver Eagle.

2015 American Eagle silver bullion coins

Citing a significant increase in demand and depleted inventories, the Mint expects sales to resume in approximately two weeks, according to a notice sent Tuesday to authorized distributors who buy the bureau’s bullion coins in bulk and then resell them in smaller quantities.

In the past, the U.S. Mint has relied on an allocation system to prevent periods of sales stoppages such as this one. The system limits how many American Silver Eagles are sold to maintain a weekly supply for all buyers even when demand is high.

Demand for bullion coins dropped sharply in May. As a result, the Mint ended Silver Eagle rationing on June 1. Bullion coin sales usually weaken in summer months and coupled with the already weakened demand, not much was made of the Mint’s announcement to completely open their sales gates. They stopped rationing sales during the same time a year earlier without any ill effects.

As it turned out, the end of rationing coincided with an uptick in physical demand for silver. June sales of the silver coins at 4,840,000 more than double those from May and July sales surged to 2,609,000 in just 7 days. Last year, sales in June reached only 2,692,000 coins and it took the entire month of July to hit 1,975,000 coins.

American Silver Eagle sales returned to a record pace. A total of 24,395,000 have been ordered for the year to date, topping last year’s January to July 7 tally of 24,203,500. Last year was a record year with annual sales of the popular silver coins reaching just above 44 million.