Mint Rations 2013 Silver Maple Leaf Coins

The Royal Canadian Mint is limiting the number of bullion 2013 Silver Maple Leaf coins sold to its distributors as very strong demand is straining its supplies.

News of the rationing steps taken by the Royal Canadian Mint broke Thursday, one week after the United States Mint halted sales of its own 2013 American Eagle silver coins as record demand ate through its initial inventory.

At the time, the U.S. Mint said it needed to build up supplies of the bullion coins and that it would limit dealer orders when sales resumed "on or about the week of January 28, 2013." The U.S. Mint has not started re-selling them so far, as of Monday, the 28th, based on published sales data from its website.

Like the American Eagles, the Gold Maple Leaf coins and Silver Maple Leaf coins are popular bullion products. Easily bought and easily sold, the silver coins tend to have low premiums above the spot price of precious metals and that makes them an attractive option for silver investors from around the world.

In 2011, the Royal Canadian Mint sold a record 23.1 million Silver Maple Leaf coins. The U.S. Mint that year delivered a record 39.8 million American Eagle silver coins. Sales remained high in 2012, but pulled back from the previous year. The Mint’s had adjusted to demand levels with no hint of supply issues until this year. On Friday, Alex Reeves of the Royal Canadian Mint told CoinNews.net that:

“We are carefully managing supply in the face of very high demand for SML (Silver Maple Leaf) coins to ensure all our distributors are served and we continue to take sales orders."

How many of the bullion coins have sold this year are unknown. The Royal Canadian Mint only offers sales stats in quarterly and annual reports. According to those reports, the latest sales of Silver Maple Leaf coins through the third quarter of 2012 are 12.7 million. The U.S. Mint through the same time last year sold nearly 25.8 million American Eagle silver coins. This year so far, more than 6 million of the 2013-dated coins moved in less than two weeks. That is when supplies dropped to low and sales stopped.