Silver Prices End Below $18, Bullion Coin Demand Plummets

U.S. silver prices fell 33.6 cents on Friday, marking four straight days of losses an pulling the metal a penny below $18 an ounce. Silver has fallen for two straight weeks.

On Friday, September silver finished at $17.991 an ounce on the Comex in New York, registering a 0.7% weekly loss and hitting its lowest closing point of the week. The metal’s highs were on Tuesday, with an intraday ceiling of $18.62 an ounce and a closing level of $18.595 an ounce.

This week’s bullion quote comes from Nell Sloane via StockMarketsReview.com.

"The failure to see September silver contract forge new highs for the move this week, in the wake of the range up action in the gold market, has apparently disappointed some traders," noted Sloan early Friday. "Apparently silver is feeling its physical commodity market roots this week, in the face of the recent economic letdown." noted Sloan.

The current gold-to-silver ratio is 1 to 68.30, which compares to last Friday’s ratio when one ounce of gold could buy 67.18 ounces of silver.

The London silver Fix was $18.140 an ounce — the second lowest price of the week. Prices plunged compared to the Thursday setting of $18.450. In weekly terms, London silver still climbed, but just barely. It was up 8 cents or 0.4%.

As a recap of silver coin news which was first reported last weekend, fall is set for the expected beginning production of the 2010 America the Beautiful 5 oz Silver Bullion Coins. The silver pieces will be replicas of the 2010 quarters which feature four national parks and one national forest. The bullion coins will be composed of .999 fine silver and feature a diameter of 3 inches. Check out the link above for more information.

Bullion American Silver Eagle coins are floundering this month when compared to past 2010 months. The silver coins picked up just 163,500 during the last week compared to 445,500 from the prior one. In fact, demand has dropped further with each passing August week. With nearly two-thirds of the month already wrapped up, the sales total for August is only 1,106,000. It appears the final monthly numbers will end significantly lower from July which ended at 2.98 million, and June which came in at just over 3 million. Silver Eagles sales for the year are now at 22,255,500.

Bullion weekly price charts follow from New York and London follow:

New York Futures Precious Metal Prices
	December Gold	September Silver	October Platinum	September Palladium
8/13/2010	1216.60	18.109	1526.20	477.25
8/20/2010	1228.80	17.991	1513.90	476.20

 

New York Futures Weekly Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver		X	-0.7%	-$0.118
Gold	X		1.0%	$12.20
Platinum		X	-0.8%	-$12.30
Palladium		X	-0.2%	-$1.05

 

London Fix Precious Metal Prices
	Gold		Silver	Platinum		Palladium
	AM	PM		AM	PM	AM	PM
8/13/2010	1215.00	1214.25	18.060	1538.00	1527.00	475.00	473.00
8/20/2010	1230.50	1223.50	18.140	1517.00	1512.00	483.00	478.00

 

London Weekly Bullion Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver	X		0.4%	$0.08
Gold	X		0.8%	$9.25
Platinum		X	-1.0%	-$15.00
Palladium	X		1.1%	$5.00