Silver Investing - January 2011 A Banner Month For Silver Eagles

The U.S. Mint is working overtime producing Silver American Eagles and the demand is right there too. So far in January 4,588,000 Silver Eagles have been produced - more than any month in its 26 year history. To put that in perspective, 4,588,000 is more Silver Eagles than were produced for the entire year of 1996 (3,466,000), 1997 (3,636,000), 1998 (4,320,000) and so close to 1995's total (4,590,000). And we still have eight working days to go in the month.

At this time, spot silver is at $28.68, down 69 cents in the last 30 days and up $10.81 (60.49%) over the last year. Despite being down recently, you will find the premiums for popular silver bullion coins and bars to be strong because the physical silver market is tight. Be a smart shopper and compare prices of at least a few dealers to get the most for your money.

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Silver Investing - Buddy, Can You Spare A (Silver) Dime?

If you have read my article on Mercury Dimes, you know this is one of my favorite 90% silver coins. Officially known as the Winged Liberty Head dime, this U. S. silver coin was minted from 1916 through 1945 by the Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco mints.

The Mercury Dime contains .0715 troy ounces of silver. With spot silver at $29.71 at the time of this post, the silver in that lowly dime is worth $2.12. In 1980 with silver at around $50 per ounce, a 90% silver dime was worth $3.57. No wonder some gas station operators were selling a gallon of gas for a silver dime. Could those days be in our future?

With silver again knocking at the $30 door plus the high premiums being charged for popular silver bullion coins, don't overlook investing in some of these affordable silver coins. They could come in handy for you someday. Before I leave the Mercury Dime discussion, let me say that some of these dimes are worth a lot more than others due to their scarcity. By far, the most valuable Mercury dime is the 1916D. So if you inherited some old coins, look for this dime and you could be several hundred dollars richer.

So far in January, 2011 the U.S. Mint reports producing 3,357,000 Silver American Eagles. The 1,696,000 Silver Eagles they reported on January 3rd certainly weren't produced in January but rather December. If this was done to keep the Silver Eagles totals down for 2010, it couldn't have been more obvious.

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Silver Investing - Year End Totals For Silver Eagles

To say that 2010 was a good year for silver would be an understatement. Unofficially, silver rose $14.04 for the year. An 83.22% gain. I hope you benefited from that gain. Silver is not so cheap but still affordable, still the "poor man's gold". Spot silver at this writing is at $30.74. James Turk was correct in his prediction of $30 silver before year-end.

After a record month for Silver Eagles in November (4,260,000), the U. S. Mint took a bit of a breather. It is possible the number could be "tweaked" this next week but the number of Silver Eagles produced in December stands at 1,772,000. For all of 2010 34,662,500 ounces of silver were converted into beautiful Silver American Eagles. A total of 1,220,500 ounces of gold were used to produce one-ounce, half-ounce, quarter-ounce and tenth-ounce Gold Eagles. Predictions for continued strength in both metals in 2011 remains strong.

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