The recent wave of bank failures, the Wall St. bailout and economic turbulence have caused a huge resurgence in the interest of gold and silver. Precious metals have historically been regarded as safe-havens during unstable times. It seems like many coin shops have run out of silver and gold and have limited product on hand.

Bank failures and the specter of inflation often make people flee to precious metals such as gold and silver. The price of both metals has shot up over the past year but has somewhat subsided from the peak when gold was at about $1,000 and silver at about $21 per ounce. One would think that, based on the law of supply and demand that at our current spot prices for gold and silver (roughly $830 and $11 per ounce on Oct. 5, 2008) that either the demand has gone down or the supply has increased. Why then is it so tough to get silver and gold?

The decrease in price may have been due in part to some large institutions and individual investors selling off gold and silver to raise cash. However, there are some that feel market manipulation in futures contracts on the Commodities Exchange (COMEX) may be at play here to keep the price of precious metals artificially low, especially silver.

As I write this on Oct. 5, 2008 the spot price for silver is about $11 - $12 per ounce. Two of the best known forms of silver bullion coins are the American Silver Eagle and the Canadian Maple Leaf. There is always a "premium" charged to buy these coins. Usually the premium is $2.00 or $3.00 over spot. Over the last few months though, the premium has been alot larger, more like $7.00 or $8.00 over spot! Silver seems to be getting tougher to find and the COMEX spot price doesn't seem to reflect reality. You can buy gold and silver on EBay but you will pay ALOT more than the spot price!

Go to a site like EBay and type in 'American Silver Eagle' and 'Canadian Silver Maple Leaf' coins in the Search box. You should find a bunch for auction. Then click on the 'Watch this Item' box so you can see what the coins sell for at the end of the auction. This will give you an idea of what people are willing to pay for silver and in my view is more realistic than the COMEX quotes. Do the same thing for Gold Eagle and Gold Maple Leaf and you'll find a premium spread of about $70 to $80 an ounce or more.

Clearly, people are hoarding this stuff. Could it be that people are afraid of a collapse in the value of fiat currency? Post your comments on what you've observed in the silver and gold market. Are there shortages in your local coin shops? What price are you paying for gold, silver coins and bullion bars etc.

Watch the videos below to learn about how gold prices are manipulated by the central banks.