US Mint suspends sales, again....

Were it not for the COMEX and the various ETF's and different silver and gold certificate programs, the story about silver and gold shortages might be more pronounced. However, in the land of illusion that we live in today there is so much paper silver and gold we're led to believe that when the US Mint announces suspension of sales of Silver and Gold Eagles due to a lack of the physical blanks (i.e., physical silver and gold rounds ready to be stamped) for the second time in a year, this should be viewed as normal.

I think more people would be fascinated if the SLV ETF came out and announced, "We're out of shares, simply ran out of paper." I assure you the cost of paper would skyrocket even though the transactions can all be handled digitally. Such is the logic of the world today. But when silver and gold suffer different types of shortages, people instead turn to paper forms of said metals. Madness, simply put.

The following excerpt is from an article posted on Mineweb.com by Dorothy Kosich:

"Unprecedented demand, a shortage of blanks, and restrictive policies and regulations continue to exacerbate what is almost becoming a chronic shortage of gold and silver coins authorized by the U.S. Mint.

The U.S. Mint has again "temporarily" suspended sales of almost all of its gold uncirculated and proof coins, along with nearly all of silver uncirculated coins because of the limited availability of blanks.

The U.S. Mint Online Product Catalog says production of the American Eagle Gold Proof and Uncirculated Coins has been temporarily suspended due to the "unprecedented demand" for American Eagle Bullion Coins for which all available 22-K gold blanks are being allocated.

In the catalog, the government says it will resume the American Eagle Gold Proof and Uncirculated Coin Programs "once sufficient inventories of gold bullion blanks can be acquired to meet market demand for all three American Eagle Gold Coin products."

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