What and Where Was All That Silver?

A Report on Stocks of Silver Around the World, The Silver Institute, 1992.

Thanks to Nick Laird, my little research project on the form and whereabouts of stocks of silver had a major breakthrough a little while ago which I would like to share with you at this time.  Nick has had, for quite a while now, a link on his web site (http://www.sharelynx.com/papers/CRAAGReport.php) to the summary conclusions of the Silver Institute’s publication ‘Stocks of Silver Around The World’ (SSATW), prepared for them in 1992 by Charles River Associates (CRA).

[I have now, in the evening on 31/10/12 downunder here, corrected some typos and improved some awkward or misleading phraseology in what follows.  I have also added the observation that the SSATW figues corroborate my earlier estimate that above ground silver stocks are four times as large as existing gold stocks.]

Nick’s posted material is provocative, to say the least, as it includes the CRA estimate that total world silver stocks amounted to 19.055 billion ounces, but then went on to present calculations that only 2,208 million ounces were available to the market under their then most generous market price assumption of silver at US$20 per ounce, and then advised that even at that price the amount of metal would only become available slowly and over a considerable period of time.  Although the COMEX silver price had been, albeit only very briefly, more than double that price eleven years previously, its average price during 1991 had been only $3.91 (and ranged between approximately $3.60 and $4.60), so using a ceiling of $20 per ounce was not unreasonable at that time.  To bring that price up to date, the US government’s 1991-2012 CPI price deflator for $20 is $25.40.  Shadowstats.com puts it at $32.75.

The Silver Institute no longer distributes the SSATW report, and suggested when I contacted them that I enquire about it with the CRA.  Before I got around to doing that, I thought of contacting Nick to see if he had the full report.  He said that he did, but soon added that he was unable to locate it.  Thankfully, he eventually did, and even more thanks to him for making it available to me.  I have since been digesting it, which is no mean feat as it runs to 181 pages, all up, and is extremely detailed.  In what follows, I will present, as succinctly as I can, what I think are the most relevant and interesting breakdowns of stock volumes and locations.  I will keep my own comments to a minimum, for now, so as not to detract from the public service of making the highlights of the SSATW available on The Screwtape Files.

Out of the total of just over 19 billion oz of existing available and unavailable silver as of the end of 1991, SSATW reports (p. 3, Figure 1-1) that 7.3% was in Bullion form, 6.2% was in the form of Coins and Medallions, and a whopping 86.5% consisted of Silverware and Art Forms.  Of the1,396 m oz of bullion (p. 8, Figure 1-5), 44% was held as Business Stocks (exchanges, industry, and dealers) 38% was Investor Stocks (individuals or institutions), and 18% was held by Governments, Mints, and Central Banks.  Of the 1,178 m oz of Coins and Medallions (p. 10, Figure 1-7), 17% was in the forms of Medals and Medallions (owners unspecified), while 38% was coinage held by families or small holders, 27% consisted of numismatics or collectables, 20% was obsolete coins in ‘bags’, and a miniscule <1% was held by governments/mints.  Of the 16,481 m oz of Silverware and Art Form stocks (p. 11, Figure 1-8), 48% was Jewelry & Art Form held by individuals, and 31% was Sterling and Holloware also held by individuals, and 20% was Ecclesiastic, leaving miniscule amounts held by other entities.

In terms of the geographical areas where the total stocks of silver of all kinds were held in 1991 (p. 4, Figure 1-2), 24.9% was in Western Europe; 19.5% was in the Middle East, China, Other Asia (?including Vietnam?), and Oceania; 18.9% was in the Indian Subcontinent; 17.4% was in North America; 10.0% was in Central and Latin America; 4.8% was in the CIS, Eastern Europe, and Other Communist countries; and 3.3% was in other non-Communist countries, not including the 1.1% in Japan.

Chapter 2, Introduction, is a brief discussion of the CRA methodology.

Chapter 3 contains a very detailed assessment of historical world mine production of silver, beginning circa 4000 BCE.  The SSATW (p. 27, Table 3-2) comes up with a figure of about 37.5 billion oz of cumulative world silver production, a little more than half of which was mined after 1920, but when estimated cumulative refining losses of 2,350 m oz, particularly in earlier centuries and then reduced by 75% in the decades prior to 1970, are deducted, net recovered mine production totaled just over 35 b oz.  Of course, many assumptions and estimates enter into such a compilation, particularly for the earlier periods and especially for certain parts of the world.  For perhaps understandable although regrettable reasons, the SSATW figures for South, Southeast, and East Asia contain huge gaps.  For instance, whereas they list (p. 29, Table 3-2) total production for Japan of 488 m oz from 600 BCE to 1951 they list nothing at all for Burma and only 61 m oz for China for the same period, and prior to 1971 they show only 12 m oz for India (presumably including Pakistan and Bangladesh before their partition in 1947).  I think that total Asian silver production figures missing from SSATW prior to the second half of the 20th century would put the cumulative world production of silver at over 40 billion ounces, or perhaps only 37.5 b oz. excluding the unrecovered mine production.  However, the missing amounts are not high in percentage terms (less than 7%, using the latter, smaller total net figure).

Chapters 4 through 6 contain copious details and arguments to back up the summary figures, above, presented in Chapter 1.  For instance, Chapter 4 covers stocks of Bullion/Bars/Ingots totaling 1,396 m oz,, with the following percentages in six world regions, as follows: North America 41.6%; Western Europe 30.7%; Indian Subcontinent 14.6%; Japan 5.0%; Central and Latin America 4.1%; Middle East, China, Other Asia, and Oceania 4.0%.  When these figures are broken down by the holders of the metal and the purposes for which it is held, there are some surprises.  For instance, the total holdings (257 m oz)of governments, mints, and/or central banks are reported as follows:  North America 124 m oz; Indian Subcontinent 92 m oz; Central and Latin America 25 m oz; Western Europe 13 m oz; and Middle East, China, other Asia, and Oceania 3 m oz.

Business (exchanges/industry/dealers) and Investor stocks (individuals or institutions) of all forms of bullion are also reported separately, but are combined in the following figures (from p. 40, Table 4-3) because the London Bullion Market is not an exchange but  its member banking institutions are often the same as those that have registered and eligible holdings with the Comex exchange in the States.  The combined total of 1,139 m oz were distributed as follows:  North America 457 m oz; Western Europe 415 m oz; Indian Subcontinent 112 m oz;  Japan 70 m oz; Middle East, China, other Asia, and Oceania 53 m oz; and Central and Latin America 32 m oz.  The CRA estimated (p. 65, Table 4-9) that somewhat over 50% of world Bullion stocks would be come available to the market at a silver price of $20 per ounce.  Of those 744 m oz, somewhat more than half (393 m oz) would come from Investor Stocks, and of that, somewhat less than two-thirds (251 m oz) would come from Western Europe comprising over 90% of their total bullion stock.  An additional 135 m oz would come from Business Stocks (Exchanges/Industry/Dealers), half of it from North America.

Chapter 5 covers stocks of coins and medallions, which were reported to total only 1,177 m oz in 1991, including 972 m oz of silver coins.  However, in the introduction to the chapter on p. 68 and again in the Conclusions on p. 90 they say that only about a tenth, or 950 m oz of the 9.4 billion oz of silver coins minted from 1911 to 1990 remained, 75% (or 80% on p. 90) of them being in North America and Western Europe.  However, calculations from Table 5-18 (p. 88) and Table  5-20 (p. 96) both produce a figure of 61% (593 m oz) of the total remaining silver coins in those two areas combined.  (Some other Chapter 5 numbers in the text and in different tables vary somewhat, and cannot be reconciled).

From Table 5-20 (p. 96), in terms of the total 1,177 m oz of surviving combined coins and medallions, the regional breakdown is:  North America 535 m oz; Western Europe 203 m oz; Indian Subcontinent 189 m oz; Central and Latin America 99 m oz; Middle East, Oceania, Other Asia 56 m oz; Japan 42 m oz; CIS, Eastern Europe, Communist Countries 42 m oz; and Rest of the Non-Communist World 12 m oz (with some kind of rounding error of 1).  Within those totals, coin holdings are broken down into Family, Small Holdings; Numismatic &/or Collectable; and in ‘bags’,while Medals and Medallions are listed separately.  If anyone is really interested in those further breakdowns, they are in the Excel table presented below.

At a prolonged silver price of $20 per ounce, the CRA estimated that the following amounts of combined coins and medallions would eventually come onto the market:  North America198 m oz; Indian Subcontinent 39 m oz; Western Europe 34 m oz; Middle East, Oceania, Other Asia 21 m oz; Central and Latin America 16 m oz; CIS, Eastern Europe, Communist Countries 9 m oz; Japan 2 m oz; and Rest of the Non-Communist World 2 m oz.

Chapter 6 covers stocks of silverware and art forms, which constitute the overwhelming majority of all silver stocks at 86.5% of the total.  As a result, the world distribution of these forms by region differs little from the figures near the beginning of this post from Chapter 1 for the distribution of total silver stocks.  However, some significant differences emerge when the stocks are broken down (p. 133, Table 6-15) into various Official holdings (including those by Museums) and Ecclesiastic holdings, on the one hand, and amounts of both Jewelry & Art Form and Sterling and Holloware combined held by individuals, on the other.

Of the 3,421 m oz of Official and Ecclesiastic holdings:  810 m oz were in Central and Latin America; 661 m oz were in Western Europe; 502 m oz were in the CIS, Eastern Europe, and Communist Countries (presumably not including China or Vietnam, which would be part of ‘Other Asia’); 437 m oz were in North America; 430 m oz were in the Indian Subcontinent; 413 m oz were in the Middle East, Oceania, and Other Asian countries; 175 m oz were in the rest of the Non-Communist World, and 3 m oz were in Japan.  Of the 13,054 m oz of Silverware and Art Form in individual hands; 3,458 m oz were in Western Europe; 3,189 m oz were in the Middle East, Oceania, and Other Asia; 2,775 m oz were in the Indian Subcontinent; 1,771 m oz were in North America; 943 m oz were in Central and Latin America; 412 m oz were in the CIS, Eastern Europe, and Communist Countries (not including China or Vietnam), 403 m oz were in the rest of the Non-Communist World; and 103 were in Japan.

The CRA estimated that at a $20 silver price, the following amounts of Silverware and Art Forms would eventually come onto the market:  341 m oz from the Indian Subcontinent; 298 m oz from the Middle East, Oceania, and Other Asia; 218 m oz from Western Europe; 113 m oz from North America; 88 m oz from Central and Latin America; 58 m oz from the CIS, Eastern Europe, and Communist Countries (not including China or Vietnam); 24 m oz from the Rest of the Non-Communist World; and 3 m oz from Japan.


Click image to enlarge. Or click here to download in .xls spreadsheet form.

The table above contains the Chapter 4, 5, & 6 figures presented previously, plus a further breakdown of the percentages to become available to the market at $20 silver.

Chapter 7 covers identifiable irrecoverable loses of silver prior to the end of 1991 in terms of photography (at least 4,838 m oz); electrical usage (at least 3,341 m oz); dental usage (at least 532 m oz); braising and soldering (at least 1,431 m oz); and finally other losses, including electroplate, mirrors, missiles, and medical (at 1,085 m oz).  Those losses total 11,227 million ounces.

Chapter 8 contains the Overall Conclusions to the SSATW, and it is only here, on p. 148, Table 8-1, that I could find figures included for ‘Total Recoverable Pool In Use’ of 987 million ounces spread over the Chapter 7 categories immediately above for identifiable irrecoverable losses, plus the Concentrator-Refining Losses of 2,350 m oz. discussed above in the commentary on Chapter 3, and additional Fabricator Losses of 394 m oz  and Secondary/Scrap Refining Losses of 131 m oz.

When the total of all stocks, including the recoverable stocks in use plus the identifiable irrecoverable losses, which together equal 35,516 m oz, are subtracted from the CRA sum for cumulative world mine production of 37,459 m oz (p. 26, Table 3-1), produces a residual figure of nearly 2 billion ounces that have to be written off against ‘Sunken/Buried Treasure and Unidentifiable and Unaccountable Losses (p. 148, Table 8-1).  That would make total losses equal to just about 13.750 b oz, or approximately one third of total mine production (including my estimation of missing Asian amounts).

Looking back at my earlier post on ‘So, How Much Silver Is Really Out There Somewhere?’ (http://screwtapefiles.blogspot.com/2012/08/so-how-much-silver-is-really-out-there.html) which reported on David Zurbuchen’s 2005 work on cumulative silver production through 2004, the SSATW figures for total mine production (which he did not include in his analysis) fits in well with the range of figures he compiled of from 42.62 b oz to 48.87 b oz if you add in the approximately 7,000 b oz produced from 1992 through 2004.  Interestingly, the CRA figures for losses are also quite similar to the one third figure Zurbuchen used from 1954 (Minerals Yearbook).

So, no real surprises there, and my previous estimate of a 4:1 silver to gold stocks ratio still holds.  However, what we do have now are some well documented, or at least well argued, figures for the form that existing stocks of silver took twenty years ago, and where those forms were to be found throughout the world.

As time allows, I will continue to post additional investigations into the issues of historic mine production and minted coinage, melted coins and changes in other categories of silver stocks over the past hundred years or so, as well as figures that I can find or derive for categories of documented and undocumented silver bullion hoards.

To that end, I will post as a first comment, below, my suggestions for a typology of categories for silver holdings that may be of aid in discussing these issues.  (Note:  I have now posted a further edited version of my proposed classification for stocks of precious metals as as separate page on the Screwtape Files blog: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5673441815180854503#editor/target=page;pageID=5510295811206254504).

I would urge, as strongly as possible, anyone seriously interested in this topic to read, or re-read, Tom Szabo’s post from 21 May 2009. ‘How Much Silver?  Part 1” (http://silveraxis.com/todayinsilver/2009/05/21/how-much-silver-part-1/).  (Unfortunately, insofar as I am aware, Part 1 is all that ever appeared.)

Disclaimer:  I have owned silver in various forms since 1977.

25 comments:

Slow Loris Larry said...

A Proposed Typology For Silver Stocks

To add some terminological clarity to the issue of ‘where all the silver is (or was)?’, let me propose a typology of forms of silver (and other precious metals) based on the amount of documented information available for them and their physical properties, as foreshadowed in slightly different wording in an earlier Screwtapes comment.

I would urge, as strongly as possible, that anyone seriously interested in this subject to read Tom Szabo’s post from 21 May 2009. ‘How Much Silver? Part 1”
(http://silveraxis.com/todayinsilver/2009/05/21/how-much-silver-part-1/). (Unfortunately, insofar as I am aware, Part 1 is all that ever appeared. Tom argues that Ted Butler’s term ‘Bullion-Equivalent Inventory (BEI) should include things like Silver Eagle coins, and by implication other similar official coins and even unofficial ‘rounds’. I would also include ‘junk’ silver coinage as part of BEI, as it too trades as bullion at varying premiums or even occasional discounts. By no means is all junk silver just obsolete US fractional coinage, as obsolete silver coins from many countries are still in existence, and many can be obtained through EBay. Tom also introduces a then new term ‘Deferred Bullion Inventory’ (DBI) to refer to above ground metal that is not available to the market in highly refined form or at prevailing prices. This category is broadly similar to what the CRA Report, ‘Stocks of Silver Around The World’, regarded as ‘silver unavailable to the market (at given silver prices), and those kinds of silver holdings can be part of any of the following categories, although most of it would be found in 6) Other Refined Metal.
1) Identified Bullion Inventories: These are the kinds of bar lists that have been included in Warren’s databases, for which owners, bar details, and sometimes even physical locations, have been reported.

2) Known Bullion Inventories: In addition to the above, these would include LBMA Good Delivery Bar inventories that provide at least approximate total weights, but not the actual bar details, and would include such things as the COMEX Eligible and Registered ounces, Perth Mint Pool Allocated accounts, and reported Government or Central Bank holdings.

To be continued

Slow Loris Larry said...

3) Bullion Equivalent Inventories: Documented weights of forms of refined metal other than GDBs, particularly smaller bars, US ASEs (and AGEs), Perth Mint coins, and the like, including generic ‘rounds’ for which there are published figures for mintages or sales, unrefined dore bars of known weight and consistency, and documented inventories of refined metal produced but not yet known to be sold for jewellery or other fabrication, or other industrial/medical uses.

4) Undocumented Bullion: Bullion that can only be inferred or estimated, such as CB leased metal (but note that some of this could be included in statistics for 1) or 2)), the ‘fractional reserve’ bullion that ‘backs’ the unallocated OTC LBMA contracts, Perth Mint Allocated Accounts, and other dark pools or hoards, including those held by funds or individuals.

5) Undocumented Bullion Equivalents: ‘Junk’ silver coins from all nations, and other things that potentially trade as bullion for which there are no actual reported holdings, or up-to-date records for remaining stocks.

6) Other Refined Metal: This includes fabricated metal such as jewellery, gold watch cases, silverware, and sterling ware, as well as other items with artistic, liturgical, or sentimental value. These stocks, which comprise by far the largest component of the total world silver stocks, would require further refining and fabrication to become bullion, per se, and encompasses much of Tom Szabo’s category of Deferred Bullion Inventory, as well as many kinds of the CRA’s ‘silver unavailable to the market’.
7) Industrial Stocks: Metal inventories held for use in industrial fabrication (apart from jewellery manufacturing) or chemical processes, including photography (mostly x-rays these days), catalysts and medical applications. Some can be recycled and reused, but most cannot or will not be reclaimed and can be regarded as irretrievably lost once it leaves a factory as components in a finished product.
8) Lost Metal: Buried and forgotten hoards, shipwrecked cargos, circulating coin wear, irreclaimable (or at least unreclaimed) after industrial fabrication or chemical/medical use, etc.

Anonymous said...

Are you really telling us that the Holy Trinity is wrong.
Bix Weir, Chris Duane and the Holy BrotheJohn will be beside themselves with righteousness and indignation that the Devil has conspired to send his emissary forth to spread these malicious un-truths about tons of Silver being available throughout all the flea-markets of the World?
Even after the prophet "Ted the Butler" had baptised so many disciples into the coming of the foretold "saviour" the Great God Silver.

I'll get my coat.

Anonymous said...

@ victorthecleaner from last thread. Soo you're saying that I was correct on selling my silver because I will lose MORE then 20%..which means you are saying SILVER will be around $25 next year..$20 the following, $15..$12...$10..$8..$6..$5..$4..$3..$2..1..0..

In 11 Years SILVER will be zero. Fiat will be king..

Louis Cypher said...

Thanks Larry, I skimmed your article and it looks great. I'll really dig into this evening.

@Duggo,
It seems BJ and the boys have ridden off in to the sunset for the moment. I'm sure they will pop back up again because Trolls can't help themselves.
None of them appeared to have any interest in rational discussion. They are only interested in passing judgement without reading or understanding.

BJ seems to have trouble accepting that one site, with more than one author, can hold opposing views. Faith based self reinforcing circle jerks are not what this site is about.

Victor The Cleaner said...

TBS,

I said 2% inflation per year. The Euro is rather unlikely to devalue by more than that. This makes it a loss in real terms of just under 20% over a 10-year period.

Yes, silver will go down in Euros over the coming 10 years. Simply because industrial metals don't do very well when the economy is poor.

Victor

Anonymous said...

Victor, the economy hasn't done well since 2008..Silver was 9.78 cents on Oct 30 2008. Where do you come up with such analysis? Its $31.81 in US dollars today.The economy SUCKS.
The economies of the world were propped up by massive stimulation created by the Feds and European banks. This will continue..SO, Silver and Gold will KEEP rising regardless of what is said here by you or the "other guy"...Until stimulation stops (peobably when fiat collapses), then...

anon said...

@ Victor The Cleaner
Just as gold, there seems to be a huge above ground supply of silver yet the price has risen over the past few years. I would like to hear your thoughts regarding the price discrepancy. I'm always hearing about the 60 year above ground gold supply but not much has been said about the above supply of silver.


Warren James said...

I just want to point out that the thrust of the analysis from both Larry and Nick, is that the story on above-ground-silver-stocks is BULLISH for Silver, since it suggests that a large chunk of these stockpiles have already re-entered the market. It's tricky business because 20 years of inflation would also have to also be factored in, but with tools like the proposed Typology (which has been refined since Larry's previous article), we at least have a framework for investigation. Good stuff.

Louis Cypher said...

Larry,
There is a nice graph on page six on the link below. If the graph is accurate (there is no reason to doubt it)and the curve is extended then (As it only goes to 2005).....
draw your own conclusions.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/things-make-you-go-hmmm-silver-conspiracy-theories-part-2


It will be ironic if all the silver is removed from the market and sits in the SLV vaults. It will be at that point the govts will step in and force liquidation of the ETF's assets as Silver is a strategic commodity once again collapsing the price.



Disclaimer: I own physical silver.

S Roche said...

This appears to be from late 2002...

"Silver
Finally, a few words on silver.
Silver lease rates are low (one
month 0.35%, one year 0.7%)
reflecting low borrowing demand
and sufficient lending supply.
As at the end of 2001 GFMS had
identified 18,440 tonnes of above
ground silver stocks, with 9,200
tonnes held by European dealers
(mostly loco London) and 5,300
tonnes held by central banks."

http://www.lbma.org.uk/assets/alch29_leases.pdf (final page)

Slow Loris Larry said...

Lease rates are tricky, and perhaps perversely so, by which I mean that the name 'lease rate' is intentionally misleading. But perhahps not - maybe its just the way bullion banks like to think about these things.

Basicallly, the lease rates for precious metals reflect the inverse of the amount of interest that has to be paid to lease (borrow) the metal. That is because they are a derived figure that is calculated according to the formula: Lease Rate equals LIBOR minus the Forward Offered Rate, either GOFO for gold or SIFO for silver.

See http://info.goldavenue.com/Info_site/in_glos/in_glos_gofo.html for how GOFO is set. SIFO is similar. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forward_contract for, well, information on how forward contracts work. And if you REALLY want to understand all this, take the time to read Tom Szabo's complete explication: http://www.silveraxis.com/commentary/gold_silver_leasing.pdf.

We now know for a fact that LIBOR, the London InterBank Offered Rate, has been highly manipulated, but for present purposes we can treat it as a constant because the relative values of the Lease Rates and the Forward Offer Rates can be more clearly understood when we do that.

So, using First Year High School algebra, SLR = LIBOR - SIFO, we can see that when the forward rate for leasing silver (SIFO) is relatively high, the resultant 'Silver Lease Rate' is relatively low, and that when SIFO exceeds LIBOR, the Silver Lease Rate is negative.

So, when the Silver Lease Rate is low or negative, it means that demand for leasing silver is high, and that when the Silver Lease Rate is high, there is weak demand for borrowing silver..

Is that perverse, or what?

Slow Loris Larry said...

I have now, in the evening of 31/10/12 down under here,edited my original post to correct some typos and improve some awkward or misleading phraseology, I have also added the observation that the SSATW figures corroborate my earlier estimate that above ground silver stocks are four times as large as existing world gold stocks.]

Anonymous said...

the 'silver valley' in idaho is home to big board stocks HL CDE and many junior or micro cap miners... this writer lives there:
http://silverminers.com/commentary/wallace/index.php?&content_id=2172

that pre-election seasonal is working with the dow up +145 today thus far... plus november begins the best 6 months in the stock markets seasonal

interesting gold is finally diverging from the stock market, which it tended to do in the old days

cheers!!

Bullion Baron said...

victorthecleaner said: Yes, silver will go down in Euros over the coming 10 years. Simply because industrial metals don't do very well when the economy is poor.

Industrial demand for Silver has been relatively stable over the past 10 years according to The Silver Institute:

http://www.silverinstitute.org/site/supply-demand/
e.g. the fall in demand for photography has been replaced by other uses (such as solar panels).

The rise in demand and driver of price (from $5 to $30) has largely been investment/speculative demand, so it's a bit dismissive to suggest that Silver won't perform well because of poor economic conditions.

Freegoldtube said...

Setup,

Math doesn't seem to be your strong suit.

If any item diminishes in value by a percentage of less than 100, it cannot reach zero.

For instance, $30 silver decreasing by 5% per year nominal value, would look like this:

30.00, 28.50, 27.08, 25.72, 24.44, 23.21, 22.05, 20.95, 19.90, 18.91, 17.96.....

Now as far as it going down in Euro's, that has more to do with the fact that it is a commodity, and not a wealth reserve asset. The ECB is not marking silver to the market, as far as I know.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone tried to sell Silver coins in quantity to the Silver dealers?

There have been a couple of comments on blogs where people have gone to sell their Silver and they are met with reluctance or a considerable mark down.
Silver blogs that also sell Silver are constantly offering "deals" to buyers but I never see them offering deals to sellers.

Louis Cypher said...

@duggo,
It all depends on the dealer. To get fair market value try Apmex or similar. If you recall the were offering to buy silver at $3 above spot not too long ago. if you go to the local guy they typically have people coming to them selling rather than buying.

Freegoldtube said...

I traded silver for gold at my local coin shop just yesterday.

They gave me spot for my silver and sold me gold at their standard markup.

SilverIsKing said...

There is a reason why the price of silver has been capped (and often knee capped) over the years.

Silver is money pure and simple and as such, it competes with the USD.

When the USD loses its reserve currency status, which is coming, the price of silver will skyrocket, regardless of above ground supply.

It will not only skyrocket against the USD but all currencies.

Unknown said...

@silversking

So what if silver skyrockets against all currencies?

It s whether it gains any value against real stuff, such as food , energy , tabernacles, etc., you should be worried about.

Marv.

Edwardo said...

duggo,

I think it's likely that my particular experience counts as an outlier, but, for what it's worth, I just sold a considerable amount of junk silver to a private dealer.

Anonymous said...


We ought to be rather grateful to SilverIsKing, Bullion Baron, and to The Setup for their efforts regarding silver. If you still have some silver around and want to get rid of it, you need to find a buyer after all. Ssshhhh.....

Victor


Anonymous said...

in the sunday pre-game...silver and eur/usd have gone down to their 200-day SMA touch..

gold 200dma comes in near the midpoint of of 1534-1798 about -15.00 from friday close

euro and silver both need to get up off the mat right away tonite or the bears will push for another hit

S Roche said...

@77

The interbank OTC 200DMA is $1673.45, ie, 24hr, which looks to me like it held. Are you using Comex Futures 200DMA to get $1,666?