US Silver Prices and Bullion Coins Decline for Week

U.S. silver prices fell 36.3 cents this week after rising 46.9 cents last week. Silver also broke away, to some degree, in tracking gold which was the only precious metal to post a weekly gain.

On Friday, Silver for September delivery rose 4.4 cents, or 0.2 percent, to finish at $18.109 an ounce on the Comex in New York. It was the third highest closing price of the week, with Monday’s $18.242 the best. Silver hit its lowest intraday point on Wednesday at $17.795 an ounce while its highest intraday level was attained on Monday at $18.575 an ounce.

This week’s bullion quote comes from Jeff Nielson via Benzinga.com.

"When most precious metals commentators (including myself) recommend gold and silver to investors, we label it as a means of ‘wealth preservation’, or simply as ‘insurance’. Few (serious) commentators talk about bullion as a means of ‘making money’ (above and beyond the rate of inflation).

The reason for this is clear. When one is strongly encouraging people to ‘play defense’ and focus on wealth preservation and ‘insuring’ that wealth, then it is simply inappropriate to advertise precious metals as some sort of get-rich-quick scheme."

The current gold to silver ratio is 1 to 67.18, which compares to last Friday’s ratio where one ounce of gold could buy 65.25 ounces of silver.

The London silver Fix was $18.060 an ounce for a weekly loss of 24 cents, or 1.3%. It reached its highest price on Monday at $18.48 and its lowest level occurred on Thursday at $17.92.

In silver coins news, U.S. Mint officials said that they anticipate making 500,000 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins this year, and begin producing them in the fall. The .999 fine silver coins will duplicate the designs of the circulating 2010 America the Beautiful Quarters.

However, in addition to their silver composition, the bullion coins will be different with their weight of five ounces and their diameter of 3 inches, which is nearly double the size of American Silver Eagles. The coins will also feature edge letters, unlike the reeded edges of quarters.

Speaking of American Silver Eagles, their numbers for August rose Friday to 942,500 for a weekly increase of 445,500 — down from the 497,000 sold during the first week of the month. The current pace is slower than sales from July which came in at nearly 3 million. Year-to-date sales of the ealges are at 22,090,000.

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

New York Futures Precious Metal Prices
	August Gold	September Silver	October Platinum	September Palladium
8/6/2010	1205.30	18.472	1570.80	487.60
8/13/2010	1216.60	18.109	1526.20	477.25

 

New York Futures Weekly Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver		X	-2.0%	-$0.363
Gold	X		0.9%	$11.30
Platinum		X	-2.8%	-$44.60
Palladium		X	-2.1%	-$10.35

 

London Fix Precious Metal Prices
	Gold		Silver	Platinum		Palladium
	AM	PM		AM	PM	AM	PM
8/6/2010	1194.50	1207.75	18.300	1567.00	1571.00	488.00	491.00
8/13/2010	1215.00	1214.25	18.060	1538.00	1527.00	475.00	473.00

 

London Weekly Bullion Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver		X	-1.3%	-$0.240
Gold	X		0.5%	$6.50
Platinum		X	-2.8%	-$44.00
Palladium		X	-3.7%	-$18.00