Metal Prices Down, Physical Premiums Up

For those of us who have seen volatile markets multiple times over the decades, it is entirely understandable that when the spot prices in the “paper” commodity markets suddenly plummet, the premiums for actual physical gold and silver coins and ingots can soar.

For example: At the COMEX close on March 11, 2020, with the spot price of silver at $16.78, the company where I work was selling $1,000 face value bags of U.S. 90 percent silver coins at $17.03 per ounce, a premium of just 1.5 percent.

As I type this in the early afternoon on March 17 before the COMEX close,