The United States Mint said on Tuesday it was unable to meet surging demand for its gold and silver bullion coins in 2020 and through January, due partly to pandemic-driven demand and plant capacity issues.

Source: Gold, silver coin demand surging, straining U.S. Mint’s capacity | Reuters

KW: The price of paper gold and silver is no where where the physical demand price should be as Physical bullion prices separate from the paper market. There’s a significant development taking place in the silver and gold markets. The real price of gold and silver is significantly higher than the screen price for paper gold and silver contracts. That does not reflect dealer operating costs. It reflects scarcity, which does not exist in paper markets because paper contracts can be expanded at zero marginal cost. 

The bigger question for investors is, when does scarcity in physical bullion play out in the paper contract world? 

That may not happen for some time, but when it does it will be an earthquake. This makes gold and silver the ultimate asymmetric trade. Bullion has limited downside based on scarcity and demand, and huge upside based on an inevitable narrowing of the gap between the real price in the physical market and the manufactured price in paper contracts.