Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/12/2010 16:20 -0500

Earlier we noted that the Austrian mint was on its way to depleting its gold reserves following "panicked buying" from Europeans, who now openly fear the demise of their currency. Now, courtesy of Slim Beleggen, we understand that the situation in the silver market is just as bad and has also spilled over to Germany: the contagion is no longer one of sovereign debt, but of precious metal physical inventory. The primarily silver focused (but holding gold as well) Kronwitter precious metal online retailer is not only not accepting any orders, but has entirely taken down its website. The only message left for visitors is (translated from German) as follows: "Dear customers, due to the enormous number of orders we can take at the moment no new orders via the Internet, email or fax."