this is from a blog called the golden truth:

A massive quantity of silver has been withdrawn from the Comex over the past month or so. On Thursday, the latest day for which data is made available, close to another million ounces was removed. Most of this silver is coming out of the "eligible" inventory. This is the inventory that belongs to private investors who are using the Comex as a depository. Some of these investors keep it there to make it convenient to re-sell on the Comex and some for convenience until they decide to take actual possession.

The total Comex silver inventory - at least the inventory which is being "reported" by the Comex - is down to 110 million ounces. I have seen the inventory this low, but it's been a long time. There is still about 3.5 million ounces worth of July silver contracts standing for delivery. This is an unusually large amount at this stage in the delivery cycle. There is no question in my mind that last week's massive paper manipulation of silver on the Comex was an attempt by JP Morgan, et al to try and shake loose a lot of those standing contracts. My bet is most the holders understand the drill and will take delivery anyway, because a year from now a $1 either way on the price of silver will be insignificant if silver does what a lot of us believe it will do.

Two questions come to mind: 1) Why are the Comex counterparties dragging their feet on delivering that 3.5 million ounces? 2) Why are an unusually large number of private investors removing their silver from Comex depositories? To be sure, in my mind these questions are strictly rhetorical. But I would suggest that anyone thinking about accumulating some silver for protection from what's coming should do so as soon as possible. To paraphrase Eric Sprott: One day you will wake up and decide to take delivery of your gold/(silver) only to find that it's not there to be delivered.

http://truthingold.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-quickie-on-silver.html