Silver bar shortage

[Bimetallic]

Hi all -- There's a silver bar shortage in the US going back to May or June, or perhaps earlier, specifically regarding premium bars. By premium I mean mostly government mints. Britannia bars disappeared early in the year. Royal Canadian Mint bars became hard to find at most American dealers, especially 1 oz, and now 10 oz too. Perth bars vanished. Even private Sunshine bars are now hard to find.

I assume this is because these mints just didn't make enough bars to last the year, or even half the year. Is that right? Are most of these bars hard to find in your countries?

I wonder if bars are less profitable than coins. It seems like they must be since the premiums are smaller, but maybe they cost less to produce. I don't remember this sort of bar shortage in prior years.

[KitboyE17]

No problem buying bars of choice yet in either the US or Europe. 

[TonyS]

I don’t like cast bars.

I’d like to get more RCM 10ozT bars, not many out there on offer.

[TonyS]

Daylight robbery is alive and well, last known location, Ebay.

[MikeInTexas]

My local business (LCS) has not shown a shortage of anything but 2019 American Silver Eagles. When I visit, their display cases have a wide variety of items, and upon request, more in secure vault. 

[Bimetallic]

2 hours ago, KitboyE17 said:

No problem buying bars of choice yet in either the US or Europe. 

Do you know of a dealer that has Britannia bars?

[g33x0r]

Plenty of Silvertowne bars available it seems though, they're on sale over at JM. 

[mr1030]

I bought a 10 oz Britannia bar from my LCS last month.  It was his last one, and he did tell me the following week that he was having trouble getting more.  But I didn't get the feeling from him that that was the case with other brands of bars.

[tallyhojim]

15 hours ago, TonyS said:

I don’t like cast bars.

I’d like to get more RCM 10ozT bars, not many out there on offer.

Me neither. I like my silver (and future gold!) to have nice clean lines and flat uniformed surfaces like proper press stamped silver does. Not a fan of all this cast silver stuff. Yes you pay a bit more for precision stamped goodies but hey ho, that's the nature of the beast.

[Bimetallic]

8 hours ago, g33x0r said:

Plenty of Silvertowne bars available it seems though, they're on sale over at JM. 

Yeah, Silvertowne seems in good supply. They're too ugly though – it's strange how the details on their bars are so blurry/sloppy. It's like they don't have the same sort of equipment that other manufacturers or mints have.

[Bimetallic]

43 minutes ago, tallyhojim said:

Me neither. I like my silver (and future gold!) to have nice clean lines and flat uniformed surfaces like proper press stamped silver does. Not a fan of all this cast silver stuff. Yes you pay a bit more for precision stamped goodies but hey ho, that's the nature of the beast.

Me too. I like sharp lines and flat surfaces. Sometimes I see such bars called "minted" while the poured stuff is "cast". Or the minted bars are called "ingots", but I'm not sure if that's a universal usage. It's the minted stuff that's in short supply right now for some reason, especially the government mints. PAMP bars are lovely, but they have eye watering premiums right now, like more than $5.00 over spot, or even $10.00.

[TonyS]

On 12/09/2019 at 06:44, g33x0r said:

Plenty of Silvertowne bars available it seems though, they're on sale over at JM. 

Britania or Canadian minted bars. Sunshine or Silvertown mints just don’t cut it for me.

I suppose I could save my pennies for a 100ozT Britania.

I don’t think so. Pressburgmint have just released the 2019 Equilibrium. They’re the first on the want list.

[g33x0r]

Yeah, I noticed the designs on the back of the Silvertowne bars I have are kind of messy.  Away from the edges/corners it seems okay though.  I mainly bought them because they were such a low price over spot, less than a  dollar I believe.  But you get what you pay for I guess.  Myself I'm still wrestling with the just get silver content vs. the pretty coins haha.  

[KitboyE17]

On 11/09/2019 at 16:04, Bimetallic said:

Do you know of a dealer that has Britannia bars?

Not my bar of choice - sorry - usually get Canadian or US bars. Seen plenty for sale on the forum here though. 

[Alun]

On 12/09/2019 at 01:04, Bimetallic said:

Do you know of a dealer that has Britannia bars?

@StackSellRepeat has/had brit bars 

[SILVERFINGER]

There was a thing in the news about Russia and China buying up silver bars, I would ask them if its true 

[AppleZippoandMetronome]

I have a trip coming up to visit friends and family in Canada and was going to pick up some 10oz RCM bars while there. Been looking at my usual sources in the Toronto area and none seem to have stock. I found this odd but it follows the theme of the topic here. Be interesting to see what stocks the shops who don't list inventory online have in stock when I get there.

[KitboyE17]

52 minutes ago, AppleZippoandMetronome said:

I have a trip coming up to visit friends and family in Canada and was going to pick up some 10oz RCM bars while there. Been looking at my usual sources in the Toronto area and none seem to have stock. I found this odd but it follows the theme of the topic here. Be interesting to see what stocks the shops who don't list inventory online have in stock when I get there.

Do you recommend any particular shops in Toronto?

[AppleZippoandMetronome]

26 minutes ago, KitboyE17 said:

Do you recommend any particular shops in Toronto?

My go to's are Canadian PMX and Bullion Mart but there are a lot of dealers and coin stores in the downtown Toronto area as well as the greater Toronto area. Generally some good coin shows too in some of the greater Toronto area cities like Brampton. Well worth a look.

[TonyS]

Hopefully another RCM 10ozT bar is heading in my direction and at a reasonable price.