Why Is Silver So Low When Gold Is So High?

In the future years, I could see this changing due to medical and technological advances.

:D Hopin it reaches the sky!

Silver has been strongly manipulated over the past 50 or so years. Look back at the Hunt brothers, different manipulation technique than what the banks are doing now, but it was still manipulation.

Silver is quickly following the rule of diminishing returns. It is a "Throw Away" PM used for industrial/medical/technology. The mines cannot keep up with the demand but the bankers keep making raids with paper silver which drives the price down. The last two attempts at this manipulation have failed costing the banks millions when the contracts come due for physical delivery.

Silver is also starting to run its course with the mines having to go deeper and deeper to reach the PM. It is starting to "Dry Up" around the world. Central America is starting to explore their Silver resources as of this minute but it takes roughly 5 - 7 years from the time of exploration to the time when the Silver can come from the ground.

In short, Silver will reach that magical number of $50.00 and then probably double that in the next 5 - 7 years. It should hovering around $85.00 dollars right now, but thanks to the manipulation of silver it is half of what it should be.

I think it's because silver still has applications beyond being a store of value like gold is. It's bought in large amounts by the people who use it so that keeps the price way down.

I don't know much about the mining process, but perhaps it takes more manpower to mine gold.?

How much silver is in the average modern electronic device today? Imagine how much a cell phone would cost if the price of silver was as high as that of gold - you don't want that.

Look at the historical ratios of the two metals. Currently the ratio is about 40:1, 40 ounces of silver to one ounce of gold.

A few months back the ratio was 60:1. In 1964 it was a government mandated 27:1. In 1979 it was 16:1 because of the Hunt Brothers silver market squeeze.

Silver is an industrial metal AND a monetary metal. Gold is not. So you are effectively comparing apples and oranges and getting misleading results.

One of the historical uses of silver was for photography. That is not true any longer with digital cameras. So, that reduces silver demand, hence silver prices. Gold was never used for photography, so it does not exhibit a lower demand curve based on photography. This results in a wider ratio between your apples and oranges (gold and silver).

My best GUESS is that the true ratio between the two based on CURRENT demand is somewhere between 35:1 and 40:1, roughly where it is now. Decades ago the ratio was a GOVERNMENT MANDATED 27:1, most likely defective like all other government mandates.

Bottom line is I would buy either gold or silver at current ratios. If the ratio goes back to 50:1, all new money would go in silver. At 60:1, gold would be sold and all of the money put in silver.

Speaking of electronics...It is true that Silver has a higher conductivity than gold (*108.4% {pure} IACS [International Annealed Copper Standard} vs 70% {pure}), gold does not tarnish (nothing glitters like gold) like silver. It still amazes me that some people market gold as being a superior conductor, when they should be touting the stability (corrosion resistance) of the material. Besides, gold is much more flashier!

* http://www.ndt-ed.org/GeneralResour...sc_Matls.htm

The talking heads on CNBC today had this discussion. Industry is down and with all of the bad press the economy is getting they don't look for demand to be rabid anytime soon for silver. I think they are completely correct because I think when gold gets much higher it will be out of reach of most investors and silver will start to catch up as a precious metal play. I only have about two pounds of fine silver but I am going to be adding to that when I hit my goal amount of fine gold.

One would think that after bashing their thumbs like that they would learn not to swing that hammer! Good on 'em, though.



On behalf of silver buyers everything, I say this to those who have suppressed the price of silver: THANK YOU!!



A lot of the gold and silver that comes from mines, does not come from dedicated gold or silver mines. It comes from the copper mines. I don't know the exact numbers but... it would be something like this... for every ton of copper than produce, they also produce a pound of silver and an oz. of gold. In some mines, the value of the gold and silver they recover is enough to pay the fixed costs of their copper mining operations.



I agree that there is a lot of hype out there but there is also some truth out there as well. As a person who is prone to eye infections, I can tell you that an infection that takes 8-10 days for a prescription antibiotic to cure can be cured MUCH more cheaply by a dilute silver sulfate solution in about 3 days. Considering that these infections are seriously painful as well as completely debilitating, I vote for the 3-day cheap cure vs. the 8-10 day expensive cure. I've know because I've used both. Maybe others have not had this same experience but this is how it is with me.



That seems to me to be an excessive amount. If someone said that a cruise missile contained 500 grams of silver, I could see that as reasonable. Satellites also consume a considerable quantity of silver and gold as well but I do not know how much... several pounds, I would think. Some of these things cost $300,000,000 or more, so they ought to have something in there that is pretty spendy.