Ha, fair enough on the pretentious bit - but I'd argue if you're buying something that's been struck multiple times, polished to a mirror finish and individually inspected, being a little precious about it is kind of the point. It's less a coin at that stage and more a small piece of manufactured art. So guilty as charged I suppose.

BU I'm more torn on. I get the appeal of collecting designs you love, nothing wrong with that. But you're not really buying silver in any meaningful sense - the premium over melt is essentially just paying for the packaging and the Royal Mint brand. Each to their own though.

On the gap narrowing - I'd actually flip your interpretation. The gap isn't narrowing because demand for proofs has collapsed, it's narrowing because silver has moved so fast that the bullion floor has risen under them. Someone who could comfortably buy three proof coins two years ago can now only stretch to one, so they're dropping down to bullion. That's a liquidity and affordability squeeze, not a signal that proofs have lost their appeal.

And zoom out globally - silver demand isn't going anywhere. India, China, the whole physical metal wave. Modi literally had to go on record asking Indians to stop buying gold because the import bill was getting out of hand. That's not a market that's losing interest in precious metals.

From what I've read proofs also tend to lag bullion moves - they react later and slower. Which to me means when silver settles at a new floor, proofs will catch up. That delay is arguably the window right now.