2001 Proof Silver Eagles -- Can Anyone Help?

Ben,

This .jpg of the historical trends of Ag(silver) values since 2001 should at least shed some light on the comparative melt value changes.

I will leave the numismatic reasons for other members to address.

fyi,

mdpmedia

The 2001 proof ASE (OGP)sells for between $55-60 and had a mintage of 746,398 which was the highest of the 13 previous years.

Purchase price in 2001 for ASE proofs was $24.00, if my records are accurate.

Okay so with silver at $4.50/ounce in 2001 and cost $24
that moved to silver at about $30/ounce (i know its a bit less now, but a few months ago it was higher) and the coin is worth about $58.
So the price of the coin has gone up almost 250%
while the price of silver has gone up over 650%

These coins are 1 ounce, but they are 99.9% silver, not 100% .... if I were to buy a 'silver coin' would it be 100% silver...or would it also be 99.9%? A better way to ask this may be to ask -- if this Proof Silver Eagle were to be sold for its silver only, would it sell for the value of silver per ounce, or a tiny fraction less than that because it's not 100% silver? Thank you!


Also, the 2012 silver eagles are selling for about $55 from the mint, arent they? Has there been a large jump in purchase price from the mint since 2003? is that only due to the price of silver moving up, or are they not minting as many coins? Thank you for all your help as I am clearly very new to learning about coins!

can you explain that 500% premium over spot please? Do you mean the coin should have cost $5 but everyone paid 5-times that value? Does that mean the coin 'had' value ... or does that mean everyone 'over paid' for the coin?

The mint produces three basic types of SAEs. All are one troy ounce total weight and contain 0.999 troy ounce of silver (the gold and platinum coins all contain 1TOz of precious metal and have a total weight above that). The three base types relate to the planchets used, made from the blanks received from the vendors. The blanks are either sent to the upsetting mill as received, burnished first (which significantly reduces surface defects), or highly polished first (which virtually eliminates surface defects). Bullion coins are minted from the first type and are almost exclusively sold to APs at $2 over spot in very large quantities ($millions at a time). Uncirculated coins are minted from the second type and are sold directly to the public by the mint, individually or in sets, almost always with some sort of special packaging. Uncirculated coins are struck at higher forces than bullion coins with die that have been vapor sandblasted to create a "soft" finished surface and receive special handling after being struck. Proof and reverse proof coins are minted from the third type and are struck at even higher forces than the uncirculated coins. They are individually handled and specially packaged, again either individually or in sets. Reverse proof coins cost more to produce than "normal" proofs because the die are more costly and do not last as long as normal proof die, which do not last as long as uncirculated die, which do not last anywhere near as long as bullion die.

If we look back to 2003 and before, proof coins sold for about $19 above silver spot and that has increased since then to about $30 over spot today. The silver spot itself has increased from around $5 to around $30 with a few spikes along the way. I believe that the bullion coins were originally sold for $1 over spot and that has increased in several steps to the $2 over spot that it is today. Individual bullion SAEs from retailers will run from $3 to $4 over spot unless there is a temporary shortage that increases that or a glut that or sale that reduces it slightly (classic supply & demand). Much of what I have said is from memory so please jump in and correct my statements where necessary.

Yeah, even in 2005, I picked up a roll from APMEX for $180, silver was around $7 and I paid $8.98 per ounce. Same thing today costs $670.