Silver is a soft metal that has been used as money for centuries. Silver is today both an asset and a commodity. Silver is a white metal with the chemical symbol Ag which come from the Latin word ‘Argentum’ meaning shining. Silver’s Atomic Number is 47. Silver is highly conductive and is used in electrical uses, as the reflective surface in mirrors, in water purification, solar panels, photographic film (this use is declining since the advent of digital cameras), and thousands of other uses.


Silver is consumed, that is it is not commonly recycled, so the amount of available silver in the world is used up. It is estimated that only a six month supply of physical silver exists above ground. Silver can be found in the Earth in a pure form but it’s more common for it to be found and extracted along with base metals.

Silver is ductile and malleable, similar to gold. Silver will tarnish when exposed to ozone or hydrogen sulphide. The tarnish is a dark layer of silver sulphide and can be removed with a dilute acidic solution such as hydrochloric acid. Nitric acid will dissolve silver to produce silver nitrate. Silver has no reaction with sulphuric acid, so sulphuric acid is used in jewellery cleaning. Silver halides are used on photographic film. Most of this is recycled if done by a large scale lab, such as Kodak. However with the decline of film photography most film processing is being done in small labs and at home, and is probably not being recycled.

Everyone uses silver in some fashion every day. When you look in a mirror you are seeing your reflection on a silver coating on the back of the glass.

Silver as Money

Silver has been used as money since 700 BC when the Lydians (now Turkey) were making Electrum coins. Electrum was a combination of gold and silver. Silver has a long history of being used throughout history. The debasement of the Roman silver coin coincided with a decline in their empire. In the mid to late 1960’s most countries abandoned using silver as currency, or debased the coins by lowering the silver content.

Sterling Silver

Sterling silver is used in jewellery and in historical coin minting. Silver by itself being malleable is not durable enough to be used in its pure form as coins or jewellery. Sterling silver is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper.

Silver as an Investment

Apart from industrial demand, silver is purchased as an investment in bullion coins and bars. Coins are issued by government mints and private mints. A coin from a private mint is called a silver round. Coins are available in an assortment of sizes from 1 gram to 10 ounces. The most popular sized silver coin is one ounce. Silver bars are available in sizes from one ounce to one kilogram. The ten ounce bars are popular and easy to liquidate.

The Canadian Maple Leafs and the American Silver Eagles are two of the most desired silver coins. Millions of them are produced each year and they bare known throughout the world. The American Silver Eagles produced by the US Mint have to be made from silver mined in the US, they can’t be made from imported silver. In 2013 the mint has had to suspend sales due to high demand that used up all current inventories. Although the silver price dropped significantly at this time, bullion companies are reporting low volumes of sales to private investors, which leaves the question as to who is buying up all the silver stock.

Market Size

The total supply of silver in 2012 from mine production, recycling scrap silver, and government coins comes to 1048 million ounces. Industrial and investor demand consumes this each year as it is produced. It is estimated that at any point there is only a six month supply of silver available at any point in time.

Market Manipulation?

With the introduction of the SLV paper stock traded at the silver spot price, the potential for market manipulation is high. These funds are supposed to be 100% backed by physical inventory. But speculation has it that they may be over leveraged a hundred to one (one hundred SLV shares to each one ounce of physical silver). The amount of SLV trading is often in the hundreds of thousands, or even millions of ounces per day. When this is compared to the yearly silver production it appears that the SLV shares are being used to manipulate the price of physical silver, or alternatively, to turn a profit at the expense of the physical price of silver.

Another theory is that the financial system is being held in check with all the money printing (Quantative Easing) going of in the USA, Europe, China, and Japan. If this was the case and there was no manipulation in the silver (and gold) prices, then silver (and gold) would be rising. A rising silver and gold price would raise awareness that the value and integrity of the paper currency is under stress.

Assuming that the silver and gold prices are being manipulated, bitcoin, as an alternative currency, would be watched to see how it reacts to money printing. After the depositors bank accounts were raided in Cyprus, according to the terms of the Troika bailout, bitcoin soared in value from $45 to $265. After this there were technical problems with Mt Gox exchange leading to volatility in the bitcoin price. At this time it is speculated on various blogs, that if one is concerned about preserving your wealth during this economic crisis, it would be wise to allocate a portion of your wealth to gold, silver, and bitcoin.


1. Silver Facts

2. Why Dollar Cost Averaging In Metals Makes Sense

3. Silver Statistics and Information

Commerce | Currency

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