Spring, Swallows, Eagles, Hours

Like the swallows of Capistrano, shiny new 2010- model silver Eagles have been sighted, perhaps a harbinger of spring – or at least the end of a dismal February. The Ides of March are upon us, the time of saving daylight has begun, and spring training has sprung.

“February – the short month that compensates by its meanness.”

As you probably remember, silver prices traded up to nearly $19/ounce on January 11th, before this year’s big price slide began. When silver dipped to a shade over $15 the first week of February, buyers cleaned out dealer stocks the country over. Unfortunately for those looking for silver Eagles, this coincided with another round of supply difficulties at our often hamstrung US Mint.

With snowstorms burying the Northeast for much of the month, February was a disaster for silver Eagles production (one week the bullion Mint at West Point NY didn’t open for four days straight). In fact, for the month not a single 5-day workweek was completed at West Point. Releases of product were postponed, and the number of silver Eagles sold slumped to barely over two million coins, as compared to January’s 3.5 million.

It wasn’t until last week that we finally started to receive silver Eagles that we ordered over 30 days ago – and shipments of same that were bought and paid for by our (thankfully) patient customers began Monday 3/8/10. So, finally we are caught up on silver Eagles, and we expect to have sufficient stock of new coins to start offering them here again in a week or two.

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Speaking of silver, Barron’s ran an article by Allen Sykora in the March 15th edition, entitled “Why Silver Will Keep Shining.” Silver bulls will no doubt be avid readers of this bullish article, which cites increased industrial demand for silver as the economies of the world recover, the overall affordability of silver itself, and its variety of uses in electronics and healthcare.

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We note a general calming down of the physical gold bullion market, with some discounting by distributors to clear a couple of items off their shelves. First, it was 1-ounce gold Maple Leafs, and this past week, 2009-dated half-ounce gold Eagles.

Accordingly, we have cut our sell prices on both those products.

Of course, we hope that the US Mint will produce fractional Eagles dated 2010 before too long. In fact, we’re so optimistic that we also expect to see gold Buffaloes this year. The .9999 Bison is very popular, but has only been struck intermittently over the past two years. If demand for gold Eagles continues to be a bit off, maybe our Mint will have time to produce some Buffaloes. You never know.

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And finally, that other sign of spring is upon us, when clocks are set forward – Daylight Savings Time. For you, maybe, but not for us.

In most of the United States, as of this past weekend, Daylight Savings Time is now the rule. However, the state of Arizona, where there is no shortage of daylight, doesn’t believe in Daylight Savings Time, and refuses to go along. The only exception in what used to be called the Territory of Arizona is up on the Reservation (the ‘Rez’), where ‘federal time” (DST) is the rule.

Here at Onlygold.com, we maintain a 40-hour trading week, eight hours a day when the markets are open for standard trading days. We start at 7 AM, and trade until 3 PM. If you’re on Eastern Daylight Time, that means we are now taking orders from 10 AM until 6 PM your time.

In short, we’re on California time for the next few months.