Governments around the world are announcing record sales for their gold and silver coins.
The U.S. mint announced sales figures for the month of November that are higher than the total yearly mintages for some previous years. 1 oz American Silver Eagle (ASE) sales topped 3.7 million coins so far during this November, the highest single-month's sales ever recorded since minting began in 1986. A total of 32.4 million coins have been sold so far in 2010, with more than a month worth of holiday sales remaining before year-end.
Canada and the UK report sales increases of between 20% and 400% for their 1 oz gold and silver mintages as well.
China's 1 oz silver panda mintage for 2010 is only 800,000 coins. Approximately 8 million Chinese gold and silver panda coins have been minted from 1983 to 2010. This year's current U.S. Silver Eagle mintage of 32.4 million coins is more than 3 times the total combined mintage of all 1 oz Chinese panda coins over the last 27 years.
