Silver Eagles' week to remember?

A 10 percent off sale wouldn’t attract the public to a department store. But will it attract silver buyers back to the silver American Eagle?

That is a question we are in the process of answering.

Silver bullion started a rapid spike higher in late June, taking it to $20.57 a troy ounce in July, according to the Kitco website.

At the same time, sales of silver American Eagles took a tumble.

The June sales total of 2,837,500 was 1,661,000 pieces fewer than the May total of 4,498,500. That is roughly a 37 percent decline.

The July sales total of 1,370,000 coins, was 1,467,500 fewer than June. In percentage terms, the decline was almost 52 percent.

The price of silver bullion has been working its way down in recent days. This morning it was $18.58 a troy ounce. This is down $1.99 from the July high, or 9.67 percent.

I repeat my question. Is 10 percent off sufficient incentive for buyers to begin returning to the silver Eagle market?

This week’s buyers will give us the answer.

Through the end of last week, silver Eagle buyers had taken 1,010,000 coins in the month of August. This is 360,000 coins fewer than July sales. However, this is an easy sales amount to achieve in the remaining week of the month.

Will it?

Lower silver prices are attractive to long-term silver investors. Present prices might seem to be a last-chance kind of bargain.

Gold Eagles' trend line has shadowed silver’s, but its August sales total, whether measured in ounces or coins has already exceeded July’s

The one-ounce gold Eagle sales total in July was 30,000, down by a percentage total virtually identical to silver’s as both figures round to a 52 percent monthly decline.

But the running total for August already has the gold ounce at 37,500, a 25 percent monthly gain.

Whether silver buyers choose to copy the gold buying behavior is what we will find out this week.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

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