Smaller investors seem to be getting in on the precious metals act as the US mint reports that one bullion coin has already sold 86% of its 2015 total.

Silver bullion coins are finding willing buyers in the US.

It’s easy to get the idea that gold and silver buying is very much a “market” phenomena, but bullion is increasingly becoming a credible investment option for small, retail investors.

As evidence for this we can see that, just five months into 2016, the US mint has already sold 85% of last year’s entire allocation of one popular bullion coin.

The ‘America the Beautiful’ five ounce silver coin is one of the largest silver bullion coins on regular offer, and the Mint’s authorised purchasers have taken 180,000 units of them this year, for a total of 900,000 ounces of silver, according to the Mint’s own data.

The Mint sells its bullion issues to a network of authorised buyers, who then make the coins available to the public. It’s a similar story across the bullion board. The smaller, one-ounce Silver Eagles coins have sold to the tune 21,942,500 million pieces so far this year. So the Mint remains on pace to have its biggest sales year ever for silver bullion.

It has already exceeded 46% of last year’s record-breaking total of 47 million ounces of Silver Eagles sold.