Dear TPM Clients,

As you all know, the effects of coronavirus (COVID-19) have accelerated what is now a precipitous decline in equities. Access to liquidity in the markets has become an issue, and all asset classes are being affected - including precious metals. This historic turn of events has created a demand shock in the physical precious metals industry. Following years of slow to moderate sales following the Greek crisis in 2015, the entire industry has been cautious to build large inventories. This includes the United States Mint, which experienced a terrible production decline of Silver American Eagles, down to only 14.9M ounces minted in 2019.

As of this morning, the United States Mint is out of Silver American Eagles, and the backlog is tremendous. To ramp up manufacturing production to meet demand will likely take weeks, if not months. If the US Mint is forced to suspend operations due to coronavirus, it remains unclear how drastic the impact will be to the supply chain. Making matters worse, it now appears that imported supply from Europe is going to be cut off. As it now stands, other products are being bid up to help fill that void.

The effects of these events will cause an increase in premiums on the sell side as well as the buy side. We have begun raising premiums on products to compensate for supply/demand constraints. To put it simply, inventory is getting more expensive for us. Additionally, we will be raising our buy back prices aggressively on popular products to help offset demand.

As our long-time customers know, if we do not have a product in stock (either at our vault in Shiner or other vaults, or in transit via one of our security partners), we simply will not sell it. This means that some of your favorite products will likely go out of stock intermittently as we await new inventory. We simply will not forward sell.

We are fortunate to have a deep corporate balance sheet and the financial backing of a 122-year old company. We have been aggressively buying hundreds of thousands of ounces of silver to create a pipeline of future supply. Some of this inventory will hit our facility next week. When these products arrive, we will make them available to you and announce this availability via email. We will sell them on a first come, first serve basis. Expect products to move quickly as investors seek a safe haven for assets during this uncertain time.

For after hours communications, please contact us at operations@texmetals.com. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and update you as more information becomes available.

Sincerely,

Tarek Saab

President, Texas Precious Metals