Silver Eagle US Mint Sales Highest Ever Through May

The US Mint sold 3.65 million ounces of silver eagles in May, and have now sold a total of 18.9 million silver eagles through the first 5 months of 2011!  This is roughly 5x the amount of silver eagles the mint sold in 2007 before the financial crisis began!

From the US Mint:

2011 Silver Sales Totals (in ounces / number of coins)

Month	One ( oz. / #coins )
January	6,422,000 6,422,000
February	3,240,000 3,240,000
March	2,767,000 2,767,000
April	2,819,000 2,819,000
May	3,653,500 3,653,500
June	0 0
Total	18,901,500 18,901,500

18.9 million ounces sold through May means the US Mint is on pace to sell 45.4 million silver eagles for 2011, and thats with decreased production because the mint can't/won't source the blanks!  Imagine what sales would look like if the mint was actually meeting demand!
This compares with 34.6 million silver eagles sold for all of 2010, 28.8 million sold for 2009, 19.5 million for 2008, and 9.5 million for all of 2007.
Of even more interest, at the current pace, the US Mint will sell another 27 million silver eagles for the rest of 2011- just for sh*ts and gigs compare that to the 32 million and change ounces of silver left in the COMEX inventory!
Stuffs about to get real.