No Encouragement is Needed for Gold and Silver Buying

Activity and values surrounding gold and silver coins continue to dominate the business of coins. Gold continues to trade in a tight range above $2,300 as this commentary is being written. Silver may yet hit the $30-an-ounce mark. The demand for intrinsically valued and for former specie coins isn’t coming from collectors alone, but from investors and speculators as well.

Costco has added fuel to this fire by selling not only gold ingots but also silver in the form of Canadian .9999 fine gold 1-ounce Maple Leaf coins, only to see them sell out quickly despite their steep price. Now there is another entity entering the field, stoking the fires of the demand for gold and silver even further. This time, it’s the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation. KOMSCO is selling what has been described as “fingernail-sized” gold bars weighing between 0.1 grams and 1.87 grams at appropriate prices for their weight.

According to the South Korean commerce phone app Pocket CU, the 40-something crowd represents 35.2 percent of their sales, followed by 15.6 percent purchased by those in their 50s, with only 6.8 percent being purchased by people in their 20s. The World Gold Council (WGC) recently reported South Korean demand for coins and bars was up 27 percent from one year earlier. At about the same time, the U.S. Mint released its 2024-W proof American gold Eagles, noting these coins, along with the .999 fine silver James A. Garfield presidential medal, are the Mint’s top sellers.

Is the madness just getting started, as was recently asked by Forbes magazine? Is there what the WGC calls “blistering central bank buying?” It’s difficult to get a handle on hobby, investor, central bank and general public purchasing figures in the United States, but people don’t appear to need any encouragement to continue buying gold and silver coins.

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