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The spot price of silver has gone down (again). However, the price of a Silver American Eagle has gone up.
As I write this spot is $22.55. To buy 1 ASE from Provident Metals is $38.75 = $16.20 premium over spot! What the Yell??

I am observing the same thing. Over the course of last several months spot prices have been moving downward but prices of coins -- gov't bullion, pre-1965 90%, foreign coins & bullion, etc -- have actually been going up or at least staying steady.

P.S. Go Cougs!

The short answer is, those selling bullion anticipate the price of the metal going up.

Silver spot is the paper price. The premium is the charge to make the bullion price commensurate with the anticipated value.

A better answer is do you want to buy silver for $30 an ounce, or wait until next week or the week after when it is $50 an ounce? Do you think it will come back down? Do you trust Joe to fix, anything?

Right. So regardless of what silver spot prices are -- or futures prices which are all very close together when you look at recent trades for June, Dec, etc contracts -- physical is trading substantially higher. In mid-and late April, US junk silver was trading at 23x face, generic rounds $32/troy ounce, gov't bullion well north of that. That's in my neck of the woods. I've sold some. I am buying foreign coins here and there these days and prices of Canadian silver coins, British, German etc have been very firm. (This reminds me, I should list some of my extras here!) You've got to have quite a bit of skill and luck to get something anywhere close to spot price at retail level, i.e. when buying in relatively small quantities.

Some say spot price plus the high premium is now the true price of silver. However, premiums shot up many times in the past only to drop down later. Is it different this time?... perhaps. Notice how when inventories are replenished, they do not last long. Buyers are what keeps premiums high. Dealers will keep premiums where they are as long as the demand remains high.

During the covid scare in March 2020 Ag dipped down to $12. When that happened I urged people to buy all they could. That buying opportunity (of a lifetime) only lasted a few hours, then premiums skyrocketed. That was over 2 years ago and premiums are still sky high. Is this the new normal? Only time will tell.

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote: Is this the new normal? Only time will tell.

amalekidad wrote:The spot price of silver has gone down (again). However, the price of a Silver American Eagle has gone up.
As I write this spot is $22.55. To buy 1 ASE from Provident Metals is $38.75 = $16.20 premium over spot! What the Yell??

At least the dealers are making money in this market.

I just called Provident to get a quote on selling them 100 silver eagles...28.90 ea. Buy for 29, sell for 39. Nice work if you can get it

Morsecode wrote:

amalekidad wrote:The spot price of silver has gone down (again). However, the price of a Silver American Eagle has gone up.
As I write this spot is $22.55. To buy 1 ASE from Provident Metals is $38.75 = $16.20 premium over spot! What the Yell??

At least the dealers are making money in this market.

I just called Provident to get a quote on selling them 100 silver eagles...28.90 ea. Buy for 29, sell for 39. Nice work if you can get it

Makes me think about the good old days when APMEX would every now and then have a sale on roll-fresh silver eagles for $2.99 over spot

pennypicker wrote:Makes me think about the good old days when APMEX would every now and then have a sale on roll-fresh silver eagles for $2.99 over spot

I have a gut feeling those ASE flash sales are long gone.

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:

pennypicker wrote:Makes me think about the good old days when APMEX would every now and then have a sale on roll-fresh silver eagles for $2.99 over spot

I have a gut feeling those ASE flash sales are long gone.

Perhaps if an ounce of silver were properly priced at, say, $100 ($200?), we might see a reasonable premium.

shinnosuke wrote:

Cu Penny Hoarder wrote:

pennypicker wrote:Makes me think about the good old days when APMEX would every now and then have a sale on roll-fresh silver eagles for $2.99 over spot

I have a gut feeling those ASE flash sales are long gone.

Perhaps if an ounce of silver were properly priced at, say, $100 ($200?), we might see a reasonable premium.

I disagree. If that happened bullion dealers would charge even higher premiums. At $100-200oz silver; hyperinflation, lack of dealer inventory and FOMO would be the main drivers for higher premiums... and people will pay it too when they see the purchasing power of their green rectangles is being destroyed day after day. However at that point, food and ammo would be worth considerably more than PMs.

Even with all the crap that has happened over the past 2 years, our lives are still somewhat normal. Things are going to get much more bizarre and considerably worse in the near future... it's not a question of if, but when.

Yeah, your comments make more sense than mine.

We have a local university oriented website that started off primarily sports oriented but morphed into everything else including a classifieds forum. Today a guy put up 20 BU (didn't look that good) 1964 Kennedy halves for $250. Silver content is $157.48 with silver at current $21.77/oz. They got snapped up immediately with several posters wanting to know if more were available. The forum coin "expert" declared it to be the deal of the year. At almost a 60% premium, what am I missing? I remember buying oodles of junk silver here 10-15 years ago for right at spot. And some really good ones.

Spot Means Nothing (SMN): this is our new acronym.


No, not you, Spot. The spot price of Silver.


No, not you, Silver. The price of Ag.


Oh, never mind.

franklin wrote:We have a local university oriented website that started off primarily sports oriented but morphed into everything else including a classifieds forum. Today a guy put up 20 BU (didn't look that good) 1964 Kennedy halves for $250. Silver content is $157.48 with silver at current $21.77/oz. They got snapped up immediately with several posters wanting to know if more were available. The forum coin "expert" declared it to be the deal of the year. At almost a 60% premium, what am I missing? I remember buying oodles of junk silver here 10-15 years ago for right at spot. And some really good ones.

$158 current melt value for $250 = deal of the year?

As recently as early 2020, 90% was averaging 0.29-0.49 cents over spot. I posted about it several times here, but people didn't seem very enthusiastic about it.

I bought a butt load of Franklins here that look like they came straight from the mint for 10 cents over spot when it was $15.34 (had to look at my notes). I have no doubt I could get close to 2x spot on my local forum if I posted accurate pics. Can't do it. I like to pull them out and look at them too much.

A roll of 1964 Kennedy halves for only $250? That's better than Walmart's price. What a deal!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/90-Silver-Kennedy-Half-Dollar-20-Coin-Roll-Avg-Circ-P-D/372377521

TwoAndAHalfCents wrote:A roll of 1964 Kennedy halves for only $250? That's better than Walmart's price. What a deal!

https://www.walmart.com/ip/90-Silver-Kennedy-Half-Dollar-20-Coin-Roll-Avg-Circ-P-D/372377521

*Sold and shipped by APMEX, Inc. | APMEX, Inc.

Paper silver prices deflate the real price of silver. If you sell paper silver, you should have physical silver to cover it.

Guess it all depends whether you're buying or selling. Personally, I haven't been doing much of either. I strongly believe the PMs are destined to go higher. That's why I'VE been gnawing on the idea of jumping back into the silver marketplace. Let the fun begin!