Silver Price

As of November 2010, Au/Ag is 67. Ag at $27 (October 2008 silver is about 1/75th of the price of gold by mass). Silver once traded at 1/6th to 1/12th the price of gold, prior to the Age of Discovery and the discovery of great silver deposits in the Americas, including Peru, Mexico, and the United States, such as the vast Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada, US. The glut prompted a prolonged and difficult political debate over US monetary policy and US Mint operations: Free Silver conversion similar to gold minting practice. This remained in public discourse during the latter two decades of the 19th century and into the 20th.

Over the last 100 years the price of silver and the gold/silver price ratio have fluctuated greatly due to competing industrial and store-of-value demands. In 1980, the silver price rose to an all-time high of US$49.45 per troy ounce (T.O.) due to market manipulation of Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt some time after the Silver Thursday the price was back to $10 per troy ounce. By December 2001 the price had dropped to US$4.15/T.O., and in May 2006 it had risen back as high as US$15.21/T.O. In March 2008, silver reached US$21.34/T.O.

The price of silver is important in Judaic Law. The lowest fiscal amount that a Jewish court, or Beth Din, can convene to adjudicate a case over is a shova pruta (value of a Babylonian pruta coin). This is fixed at 1/8 of a gram of pure, unrefined silver, at market price.

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