The U.S. Mint (usmint.gov) has issued a clarification to a statement it made last week regarding a global silver shortage. The original statement came in the announcement that the Mint was suspending the upcoming releases of the 2021 Denver & Philadelphia Morgan Dollars as well as the 2021 Peace Dollar. This was pointed out as being a direct result of the Mint’s site being crushed by the demand for the CC and O privy mark Morgan Dollars that were released on May 27th.
In that post, the Mint also stated the following:
“The global silver shortage has driven demand for many of our bullion and numismatic products to record heights.”
United States Mint Statement on May 28, 2021
Yesterday, the Mint issued the following clarification regarding the global silver shortage
“In a message released Friday, May 28, we made reference to a global shortage of silver. In more precise terms, the silver shortage being experienced by the United States Mint pertains only to the supply of silver blanks among suppliers to the U.S. Mint.”
United States Mint Clarification on June 2, 2021
While fundamentally the issues caused by the Mint’s site were to blame for the CC & O Morgan Dollar debacle, the Mint is also making it clear that part of the reason behind the suspension of pre-orders for the Denver and Philadelphia coins is due to this shortage of silver in the market.
Demand for bullion products, particularly silver, have been at record highs globally since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. The trend continued throughout the year with the Mint selling a record number of silver American Eagles last year. For the first half of 2021, demand has not been as high as last year, but remains higher than normal.
It would seem that the Mint is setting expectations that bullion products will be scarce throughout this year.