this is a strange anamoly.   if you check out the buy/sell page at kitco,  about 90% of silver and platinum products say "out of stock"  .   so demand is a LOT higher than supply yet the price is collapsing.  

the last time this happened is late 2008,  just before silver rocketed up to 50 bucks.  silver spiked down, but if you went into a coin shop,  the price of silver had NOT gone down at all.  

currently, if you are willing to pay 18 bucks you can buy plenty of silver, but... at the current price of 12.50, there is NONE available at all .  the price is 12.50 only in the paper market,  not in the real market.