Silver mine production declined 5% last year
The Silver Institute just released its annual report (“World Silver Survey 2020”) covering silver supply and demand through 2020. Their statistics on supply revealed a shocking fact that – despite rising demand and rising prices – silver mine production declined 5% last year and 6% over the last two years.
Recycling made up for part of the drop in mining production, but overall silver supply was still down 4.4% in 2020 to 978.1 million Troy ounces in 2020, vs. 1,023.1 million ounces in 2019.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, industrial demand was down 7%, but physical investment demand rose 16%, from 186.1 million ounces in 2019 to 215.8 million ounces in 2020. As a result, investment demand grew from 18.2% of total demand in 2019 to 22.1% in 2020. When the global economy picks up in 2021, industrial demand will likely soar, while investment demand could also increase, pushing silver prices up further.
The recent panic buying of silver bullion has sparked a significant increase in fraudulent or misleading online advertising to lure unsuspecting retail buyers to purchase counterfeit United States silver dollars, according to officials.
“Supplies of genuine, century-old Morgan silver dollars are extremely tight, but one suspicious seller on Facebook is offering to sell 28 ‘genuine’ Morgan dollars for only $199. If they actually were genuine coins, the price would be closer to $900. Even the certification holders housing their fakes appear to be counterfeits,” said ACEF.
The Anti-Counterfeiting Educational Foundation is alerting the Secret Service about the fakes as part of the foundation’s ongoing assistance to federal, state and local law enforcement as well as prosecutors to fight counterfeiting and the sales of counterfeit coins.
