Silver-coin sales will climb as investors seek to protect their wealth from weakening currencies, according to the Perth Mint, producer of about 6 percent of the world’s gold bullion.

“There seems to be more upside with silver than gold right now,” said Ron Currie, sales and marketing director. The mint, founded in 1899, also wants to sell more gold to China even as it scales back production rates from the peak levels seen last year after the 2008 financial crisis, Currie said.

The mint’s outlook adds to signs that global demand for silver, which trades for about 50 times less than gold per ounce, will increase. The Royal Canadian Mint said last week that silver-coin sales will jump more than 50 percent this year. The Perth Mint may match that gain, Currie said in an interview.

Some customers have moved gold holdings into silver, Currie said on Nov. 19. There are no fundamentals to the silver market “but people are buying it,” he said from the mint, which is controlled by the Western Australian government.

Immediate-delivery silver has surged 64 percent this year, peaking at $29.36 an ounce earlier this month, the highest price since September 1980. That’s beaten gold’s 24 percent jump in 2010. Gold traded at a record $1,424.60 an ounce on Nov. 9.


READ MORE http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-22/silver-sales-to-surge-as-i...