The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) released its second quarter 2016 report this week. The RCM’s 2015 annual report showed that they sold a record 34.3 million ounces of silver last year. The RCM’s 2016 first quarter report showed silver sales of 10.6 million ounces of silver, an increase of 19.3% from the first quarter of 2015. The second quarter report showed silver sales of 8.6 million ounces an increase of 24% from the second quarter of 2015.
Silver sales in the second quarter of 2016 at the U.S., Perth and Canadian Mints were all up substantially from the second quarter of record year 2015.
In the first half of 2016, the RCM sold 19 million ounces of silver or 55% of 2015’s total silver sales.
The chart below shows the first and second quarter Royal Canadian Mint silver sales in 2016 vs. annual sales since 2004.
Silver sales at the Royal Canadian Mint through the first half of 2016 were 19 million ounces.
The Royal Canadian Mint noted in its Q1 2016 report that “Sales of silver bullion have been driven for several quarters by demand that exceeds supply in North America and Europe.” While silver sales remained robust in the second quarter, gold sales also regained favor.
The ratio of silver sales to gold sales at the Canadian Mint was nearly 50 ounces to one in the first quarter of 2016. As the price of silver rose more than gold in the second quarter of 2016 and the gold silver ratio fell, so too did the ratio of silver to gold sales at the Canadian Mint. In the second quarter the ratio of silver sales to gold sales fell to 33 ounces to one.
The Royal Canadian Mint silver to gold sales ratio in 2015 was 36 to 1.
The low price of silver in 2015 helped drive sales as well as a rising gold silver ratio that reached nearly 80 to 1 during the year. The price of silver declined steadily through 2015 since reaching an all time high of about $50 an ounce in April 2011. The declining price led to corresponding increasing sales in each of the past three years at the Royal Canadian Mint. The price of silver rose nearly 40% in the first half of 2016 as silver coin sales continued to increase.