Interesting.........From Adrian Ash article published on Friday 02/18/11
https://www.goldseek.com/
"Both the Austrian and Canadian Mints have begun rationing new silver coins to dealers, meantime, after record January sales across the retail industry.
"We have sold everything we can produce in silver and have demand for at least twice that volume," says the Royal Canadian Mint's head of sales, David Madge.
Silver prices today jumped to fresh 31-year highs at $32 per ounce, outpacing the rise in gold prices more than 3 times over since the two metals turned sharply higher three weeks ago.
Gold prices have risen 6.2% since Jan. 28th for Dollar investors. Silver has risen nearly 21%.
"Silver was completely out of hand" on Thursday, says one London dealer in a note. "