Demand for precious metals increased drastically last year, and it is still going strong today.

The demand was so strong last year that the US Mint couldn't even keep up with the demand for the gold and silver coins that people wanted to buy.

When the government starts turning to more stimulus and interfering with the economy in such a way, it traditionally drives people to safe haven assets and that means precious metals like gold and silver.

Increasingly, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are also being considered great alternatives to fiat as well with more people around the world today, including institutional investors.

Bullion sales increased almost 300 percent last year when demand jumped

The sales of bullion gold coins grew 258 percent last year, while silver coins didn't see as much of a jump but still a decent 28 percent climb in demand.

Because the US Mint is also in the works of changing the coin design that also meant there would be a backlog for precious metals.

Getting harder to find...

Now they say that Silver Eagles are much more scarce and that is expected to last for several weeks yet, possibly until the middle of march.

220,500 gold American Eagle coins were sold in Jan alone

This is an increase in sales for those coins of about 290 percent compared to the year prior. Because of the heavy demand for coins right now they are also limiting the distribution of their products to certain dealers.

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