OPEN LETTER TO THE US MINT AND US TREASURY
October 19,2015
Edmond C. Moy
Director of The US Mint
emoy@usmint.gov
801 9th Street, NW
Room 8S23-3
Washington, D.C. 20220
Jacob Lew
US Secretary of The Treasury
jlew@treas.gov
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20220
Re: Illegal Silver Eagle Allocation Operation
Dear Sirs;
It has come to my attention that your continual limits on the allocation of US Silver Eagles since June 2015 is once again in violation of the American Silver Eagle bullion program Title II of Public Law 99-61 (Liberty Coin Act) codified as 31 U.S.C. § 5112(e)-(h) which requires that US Silver Eagles be produced "in quantities sufficient to meet public demand."
The current limitation placed on US Silver Eagles is NOT due to limited manufacturing capabilities of the US Mint facilities but rather due to a supposed shortage of silver planchets (blanks) coming from the official suppliers to the US Mint.
THIS IS NOT A TRUE STATEMENT and I demand that the US Mint cease any limitation on US Silver Eagle sales immediately and comply with the law.
Proof of availability of stock was revealed in a recent article and interview with the CEO of the US Mint's largest blank provider, the Sunshine Mint.
Sunshine Minting operating around the clock to to meet silver demand
http://www.coinworld.com/news/precious-metals/2015/10/sunshine-mint-producing-silver-planchets-at-capacity.html#
In this interview published in Coin World the Sunshine Mint's CEO Tom Power states that the Sunshine Mint will produce over 70M ounces of silver products this year and that the US Mint is NOT demanding or receiving 100% of this production.
"Sunshine Minting is the primary supplier of 1-ounce silver planchets to the United States Mint for the production of American Eagle silver bullion coins. Sunshine also provides silver planchets to other, undisclosed world mints."
"The United States Mint doesn't get 100 percent of our capacity," Power said."
"In 2014, Sunshine Minting produced 70 million ounces of silver bullion products and is likely to eclipses that level in 2015, Power said."
On the surface, the wide disbursement of the Sunshine Mint's blank production may seem reasonable but in reality, and in accordance with the law, the US Mint IS REQUIRED to increase their BID for ALL SILVER BLANKS until they bid high enough to obtain enough blanks to meet public demand.
This high bid requirement is across all the other Authorized Suppliers of silver blanks to the US Mint.
It is the LAW and the fact that the Sunshine Mint, being the largest supplier of blanks, is producing over TWICE the output needed by the US Mint gives support to the theory that the US Mint's silver suppliers are illegally conspiring to distort the Fair Market Value of silver. After all, according to conclusions in all three CFTC Silver Manipulation Investigations, since the futures and options price of silver was equal to the physical price of silver - there was no manipulation.
That is clearly no longer true as it is the artificially low silver prices today that has lead to the current silver shortage. And this is NOT just a retail blank shortage. The Sunshine Mint reveals in this interview that the availability of COMEX 1,000 ounces "good delivery" silver bars are ALSO in a shortage?
"Planchets are not the only form of silver currently in short supply. There has been a shortage of 1,000-ounce silver bars, Power said."
With two of the most popular forms of silver bullion, 1oz silver blanks and 1,000 ounces COMEX silver bars, it is disingenuous at best for ANYONE to claim that there is no physical silver shortage.
Now we have direct proof that the price of COMEX silver futures and options prices are not reflecting the price or supply availability of physical silver. It's once again time for the CFTC to open another Silver Manipulation Investigation into the price suppression on the COMEX.
SUMMARY: Due to the REQUIREMENTS of the US Silver Eagle law, the US Mint must produce coins "in quantities sufficient to meet public demand" which puts the US Mint in the unique position among all the other buyers of silver blanks as being REQUIRED to be the HIGHEST BIDDER for silver blank production when global supplies of US Silver Eagles are NOT meeting demand. By holding back the higher bids for physical silver the US Mint is participating in the price suppression that has distorted the supply/demand dynamics for a "free market" in silver which has created the shortages of physical silver.
The evidence is clear and the US Mint must END their violation of Public Law 99-61 and increase their bids for silver blanks in order to produce the quantity of US Silver Eagles required "to meet public demand."
It is disingenuous for our politicians and regulators to decry the widespread use of artificial market manipulation on one hand - and play a major role in supporting it on the other.
Signed: A Concerned Citizen of the United States of America
Bix Weir
www.RoadtoRoota.com
Letter sent to:
Timothy Massad, CFTC Chairman (tmassad@cftc.gov) Aitan Goelman, CFTC Director of Enforcement (agoelman@cftc.gov) Gretchen Lowe, CFTC Principal Deputy Director (glowe@cftc.gov) Christopher Ehrman, CFTC Director (Whistleblower Office) (cehrman@cftc.gov)
Ted Butler, Butler Research David Morgan, Silver-Investor.com Bill Murphy, Chairman of GATA
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