GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Concerns about bank failures has led to an increase in demand for gold and silver.
Grand Rapids Coins has seen an influx of customers since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The business is working to keep up with the demand for the most popular types of coins and bars for investment.
“Three days last week, we sold completely out of gold and silver,” employee Brent Ashcroft said. “That never happened one day in the entire calendar year we were open in 2022.”
The business is seeing a variety of buyers wanting to diversify their assets, many with concerns about their bank deposits.
“There was a tremendous amount of foot traffic coming into this store,” Ashcroft said. “People are not trusting what’s happening in the banking system right now and they want to put their gold and silver, and their wealth, into something that they know.”
Joerg Picard, an associate professor of finance at Grand Valley State University, says while he is not opposed to some ownership of precious metals, people should not panic over recent bank failures.
“There’s the gold value by itself. You could buy like a gold bar. There’s also the coins, which are more of a collectable item,” Picard said. “If that appeases you and you have a little bit of gold coins or gold bars, but the majority of the funds I would leave in the bank and having that insured with the FDIC.”
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will guarantee deposits up to 250,000 per bank and the government can back amounts over that, like it is doing for customers of Silicon Valley Bank.
Picard says other investments can produce greater returns in the long run and investors tend to buy more gold and silver in times of economic uncertainty.
“I think in the western hemisphere, especially the United States, there’s (a) very slim chance that we (are) going to have such dire results, catastrophic event, that you need to convert your cash into gold,” Picard said.
