An Idaho company that supplies silver and gold to the U.S. Mint and foreign governments has doubled its sales to the federal government in the past year.

Sunshine Minting Inc., a closely held company in Coeur d’Alene, received $1.25 billion from the federal government for precious metals in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from the $591.4 million it made the prior year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Sunshine Minting supplies raw silver, and silver and gold blanks to the U.S. Mint, as well as to 13 other government mints around the world.

It is one of five companies that benefited in the latest fiscal year from increased government purchases of gold, silver and other metals.

The U.S. Mint returns the money it makes from its sales to the U.S. Treasury.

The Mint spent $3.75 billion in contract spending on precious metals in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, up from $2.74 billion the year before.

The growth is tied to the increased price of gold, silver and other metals, as well as demand for bullion and collector coins, said Michael White, U.S. mint spokesman.

Silver was the primary driver, White said in an email.

Gold, in the 11th year of a bull market, hit a record $1,921.15 an ounce on Sept. 6, and silver hit a 31-year high of $49.845 an ounce in April.

The U.S. Mint contracts with several gold suppliers that compete for the agency’s business each day by communicating the amount of gold they have available and their asking price, said Gordon Hume, another Mint spokesman.

Decisions are based on the amount of gold the agency needs and supplier price, he said.

Sunshine Minting has almost quadrupled its staff to 270 since 2007, but orders remain backlogged because of the “dramatic increases” in demand for silver and gold coins, said Tom Power, the company chief executive officer.

Numismatic products, such as the “proof” American Eagle coins the U.S. Mint sells, carry a premium beyond the value of the metal itself because there are fewer available, said Scott Carter, chief executive officer of Goldline International, Inc., a Santa Monica, Calif., gold dealer.

International demand for American gold and silver coins, as well South African and Australian gold products, has gone “through the roof,” according to Sterling Smith, an analyst with St. Paul, Minn.-based Country Hedging, in an Oct. 20 phone interview.

The popularity is linked to political and financial market instability, he said.