According to the Royal Canadian Mint's newest quarterly report just released, Gold and Silver Maple Leaf sales increased substantially Q1, 2013. During the first quarter of 2013, Silver Maple Leaf sales were up 65% at 6.6 million ounces compared to 4 million ounces during the same period last year.
The Royal Canadian Mint had a total of 18.1 million Silver Maple Leaf sales in 2012. If the current sales trend continues, there will be an estimated 23 million Silver Maple Leaf sales for 2013 -- 27% higher than 2012.
Even though first quarter 2013 Silver Maple leaf sales were impressive, the increase of Gold Maple leaf sales were even higher. In the chart below we can see that Gold Maple leaf sales Q1, 2013 were nearly double compared to the same period last year:
Here we can see that Gold Maple Leaf sales increased 96% to 269,000 ounces during Q1, 2013 compared to 137,000 ounces last year. Furthermore, sales of Gold Maple Leafs are estimated to grow to approximately 1+ million oz in 2013, up from 883,048 oz in 2012.
Silver Eagle & Maple Leaf Sales Continue to Surpass Domestic Silver Production
As I mentioned in a prior article Silver Eagle & Maple Leaf Sales Up As Supply Slips, U.S. Silver Eagle & Canadian Maple sales are still outpacing domestic mine production. Total sales of Silver Eagles & Maples during Q1 2013 were 20.8 million oz while domestic mine supply from these two countries only stood at 14.3 million oz.
If we look at the chart below, estimated 2013 Silver Eagle & Maple Leaf sales (based on present trends) may reach a new record of 65 million oz and are forecasted to surpass total U.S. & Canadian domestic mine production supply of 57 million oz by 8 million oz. Thus, both the United States and Canada have to continue to import silver to help meet the demand of their official coin sales.
This forecast is based on a total of 42 million Silver Eagle and 23 million Silver Maple Leaf sales for 2013. While the Royal Canadian Mint only updates their sales figures quarterly (2 month lag), the U.S. Mint just released their total Silver Eagle sales on May 28, 2013 at 21.7 million oz. If we consider that the sales of Eagles and Maples picked up significantly during April & May, due to the recent silver price take-down, the estimated coin sales for 2013 above may turn out to be conservative.
It will be interesting to see what kind of demand these coins will generate for the remainder of the year.
You can find updates to these figures at the SRSrocco Report.
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