Sunshine Minting extruded 100 oz. .999 fine silver bar

In 2001, Sunshine Minting announced that it would start producing extruded 100-oz 999 fine silver bullion bars. However, most of the bars coming out of Sunshine are still the popular struck bars, with mirror-like finishes and crisp raised markings. Because extruded silver bullion bars are less costly to produce, when investor demand for silver bullion bars revives Sunshine probably will switch to extruded bars. When CMI receives an extruded bar, it will be photographed and posted above.

Silver investors often confuse and understandably so Sunshine Minting with Sunshine Mining, which went into bankruptcy in early 2002. Sunshine Minting is an offshoot of Sunshine Mining. In 1994, the minting division of Sunshine Mining separated from the company and has operated independently since then as Sunshine Minting. Today, Sunshine Minting is one of the major suppliers of bullion products, including 10-oz bars, 1-oz rounds, and 1-oz ingots (bars). Additionally, Sunshine Minting produces the 1-oz silver planchets (blanks) that the U.S. Mint uses to stamp Silver Eagles.

(The collapse of Sunshine Mining illustrates the pitfalls of investing in mining companies. For more than 100 years, the company's name was synonymous with silver because of the famed Sunshine Mine, which is now mothballed. A few years ago, management borrowed huge sums of money, but low silver prices made it impossible to service the debt. As a result, creditors converted their debt to Sunshine stock, diluting shareholders to about 4% of their previous position. A few months after that, the creditors took for themselves out of the company a supposedly "world class" silver property in South America, leaving the "reorganized" Sunshine Mining and Refining Company only a shell. Although speculating in mining company stocks can be exciting, physical bullion offers investors much greater security.)