Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

I hope this is the right section for this thread........

There is no doubt that there is a silver shortage right now - and amongst them, the US Mint has said they are out of silver eagles - at least for a few weeks..........

Now, I have heard thru the grapevine, that either Sunshine / or Sunshinesilver (I am not sure which) makes the blank silver rounds for the eagles, and that the US Mint had to send 500,000 back because they were not made properly.

That means that Sunshine(whatever) has to smelt and remake them - which is why it will take a few weeks before eagles are available again.

Now - once again - there is no question that there is a silver shortage at the moment - but a half a million silver rounds returned to the manufacturer would certainly have SOME bearing in all this!

Has anyone heard anything about this?

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

From a former RCO of the liberty dollar, your correct that Sunshine Mint provides the blanks. Other than that I cant' confirm, but the information sounds possible.

TG

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

Wow, that comes as a big surprise to me. I had no idea they jobbed out the blank rounds.
So were the blanks off in weight I wonder? Makes me a little edgy about all the Sunshine mint rounds I have myself. All four of them that is. :D

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

Yup Sunshine Mint has made the planchets for a long time. I had not heard that the mint had to return any. Odds are more likely that they under ordered.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

Just for the record, here's the SAE order page at the Mint. i guess if you're out of stock, might as well price 'em at $8.50 above spot. :rolleyes_m:

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs...category=10191


<TABLE id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_Table_1 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=440 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=categoryspace id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_2 vAlign=top colSpan=3><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD width=320></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top align=left width=426></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_3 vAlign=top><TR><TD id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_3 vAlign=top><TABLE id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_Table_3 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><!-- list all the products in this category with the product's prices --><TD id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_ForProduct _1 vAlign=top width=440><TABLE id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_Table_4 cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=1 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_Product_1 vAlign=top align=middle width=90>http://catalog.usmint.gov/wcsstore/C.../Z8F_small.jpg</TD><TD width=17> </TD><TD id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_ProductDes c_1 vAlign=top width=258 height=84><TABLE><TBODY><TR align=left><TD align=left width=258 colSpan=2>2008 American Eagle One Ounce Silver Uncirculated Coin (Z8F) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_ProductPri ce_1 vAlign=top align=left>Price: $25.95 <LABEL for=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_FormInput_quantity_ In_OrderItemAddForm_1>Qty. </LABEL> <INPUT onkeypress="KeyAdd2ShopCart(document.OrderItemAddF orm, 'productCatalog', '14433', document.OrderItemAddForm.inputQty, 0, 'G',event); return true;" id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_FormInput_quantity_I n_OrderItemAddForm_1 maxLength=2 size=2 value=1 name=inputQty> More Info.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD>Product will be available for shipping 04/09/2008 <TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_Table_2 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_9></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD><TD><TABLE id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_Table_3 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD id=WC_CachedCategoriesDisplay_TableCell_10></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

The government should have gone with Northwest Territorial Mint. That way, there are no unexpected delays in delivery: they're all expected.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

I understand they make the Pan am and the APMEX rounds. May be they make the AMARK ones also.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

A Mark is an independent refiner, IMO. I believe they claim to supply planchets for Eagles, but it may not be an exclusive contract. I'm confused.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

People often say that the high premium for SAEs is justified because the coins are backed by the full faith and credit of the USA gov't (or some other catchy phrase like that).

But if the USA gov't outsources the coins, aren't they really just as reliable as anything else produced by Sunshine Mint?

Therefore, they shouldn't justify any higher premium?

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

Search me. Many precious-metals investors harbor a strong distrust of any government entity, and hold government guarantees to be worse than worthless, yet gladly pay high premiums to hold Eagles instead of privately-minted rounds. Does this make any sense to you?

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

http://sunshinemint.com/CompanyProfile.htm

Sunshine Minting Inc. ... primary supplier of silver blanks to the United States Mint ...

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

If thats the case I prefer Maples or generic rounds.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

How long is the suspension for? I might try to get an order in today.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

these are the 2008-W BU's..a different issue than the 2008

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

"... I had no idea they jobbed out the blank rounds..."

A year or so ago I was told that the U.S. mint contracts all of the planchets they strike as coins.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

I toured the U.S. Mint in Philly last Friday. We were told that the Philly mint purchases from third party vendors all the planchets for pennies and that they made the planchets for the other denominations. I suppose that they were only talking about the nickels, dimes, quarters and half-dollars.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

I got a few of them pretty cheap right before they "ran out". These SAEs looked different. They had a dull pearl-ecsent look to them. Maybe I got some of these mistakes. Maybe they will be worth something :wink: (big collector premium) as there will not be many.

Re: Sunshine & The U.S. Mint - anyone heard about this?
 

The way I view it is this: It's not necessarily the gold/silver content, which is no more or no less trustworthy than private rounds and bars, even rounds and bars by now-defunct companies. It's about the fact that in the event of disaster, other people would trust government coins a lot more than private rounds and bars. In fact, unless you are someone who is melting it for industrial purposes, the only thing that matters is people's trust in the bullion item, NOT the content or purity of it.