5,000 Years of Silver

Monetary History, Demonetization, Key Price Events

Monetary History Timeline^[8][21][22]

Period	Event	Detail
~3000 BC	First Use as Money	Mesopotamia; silver weighed and traded before coins existed.
~600 BC	First Standardized Coins	Greek drachma (silver). Silver was the everyday transaction metal.
Roman Era	Denarius Standard	Denarius = 3.9g silver coin. 1 aureus (gold) = 25 denarii.
Medieval	Dominant Monetary Metal	Pound sterling originally = 1 pound of sterling silver (92.5% pure).
1792	US Bimetallic Standard	Coinage Act fixed gold:silver at 15:1. Silver dollar = 371.25 grains.
1865	Latin Monetary Union	France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy standardized bimetallic coinage at 15.5:1.

The Great Demonetization^[21][22][23]

Silver served as the dominant monetary metal for millennia. Its demonetization was a deliberate, multi-decade policy choice across Western nations, not a market outcome. The consequences persist: silver has no official monetary role today.

Year	Event	Impact
1873	Coinage Act of 1873 ('Crime of 73')	Discontinued silver dollar minting. Effectively placed US on gold standard. Denounced by silver miners and agrarian populists.
1893	Sherman Silver Purchase Act Repealed	Government silver purchases ended due to gold reserve drain.
1900	US Gold Standard Act	Gold formally established as THE standard. Silver relegated to subsidiary coinage.
1965	Coinage Act of 1965	Removed silver from dimes and quarters entirely. Half dollars reduced from 90% to 40%.
1971	Nixon Shock	Ended gold convertibility. All metals fully demonetized. Silver already had no monetary role.

US Coin Silver Content

Period	Denomination	Silver Content
1794-1964	Dimes, Quarters, Half Dollars	90%
1965-1970	Kennedy Half Dollar Only	40%
1965+	Dimes, Quarters	0%
1971+	All Circulating Coins	0%

Key Price Events^{[9][13][14][20]}

Jan 1980$49.45

Hunt Brothers Peak

Nelson and William Hunt accumulated est. 100M+ oz (one-third of world non-government supply). COMEX intraday peak $49.45 spot / $50.35 futures. COMEX adopted 'Silver Rule 7' restricting margin purchases to liquidation-only orders.

Mar 27, 1980$10.80

Silver Thursday

Crashed from $21.62 to $10.80 in a single day (-50%). Bank consortium arranged $1.1B bailout for the Hunt brothers. Largest single-day commodity crash in modern history.

1991-1993$3.94

Post-Hunt Doldrums

Silver languished in $4-5 range for over a decade. Gold/silver ratio hit 100:1 in 1991. Photography demand peaked and began declining with digital cameras.

Apr 2006$12.00

SLV ETF Launch

iShares Silver Trust (SLV) launched, giving retail and institutional investors easy access to physical silver. Changed market structure permanently by creating persistent physical demand from paper flows.

Oct 2008$8.88

Financial Crisis Crash

Silver crashed 60% from $19+ as deleveraging hit all risk assets. Underperformed gold as industrial demand collapsed. Gold/silver ratio spiked to 80:1.

Apr 28, 2011$49.51

2011 Peak

Matched the 1980 nominal high. Driven by QE2, European sovereign debt crisis, and physical demand from India/China. Record annual average of $35.12. Five margin hikes in 8 days triggered the subsequent crash.

Dec 2015$13.71

Bear Market Trough

Six years of decline from 2011 peak. Silver dropped 72% peak-to-trough. Industrial demand soft, strong USD, rising real rates.

Mar 18, 2020$12.01

COVID Crash

Intraday low of ~$12 during pandemic panic. Crashed 35%+ in weeks. Gold/silver ratio hit all-time modern high of 125:1. Recovered 144% to $29.26 by August.

Jan-Feb 2021$30.00

Reddit/WSB Squeeze Attempt

WallStreetBets community targeted silver. SLV absorbed ~$1B in one session. Squeeze failed due to market size and internal division. Price briefly touched $30, quickly reverted.

Q4 2025$71.63

Silver Breaks $50

First time above 1980 nominal high. Driven by structural supply deficits, Indian/Chinese demand, solar demand surge, and gold rally. Year-end close ~$72, +144% for 2025.

Jan 29, 2026$121.62

New All-Time High

Intraday peak of $121.62. Followed by 30%+ flash crash to ~$75 within 30 hours. Still below the 1980 inflation-adjusted peak of ~$172-200 in 2026 dollars.

Central Bank Holdings: Gold vs Silver^[6][7]

54,000t

Central Bank Gold Holdings

11%

Gold as Share of FX Reserves

Central Bank Silver Holdings

Key Insight

Silver's total absence from central bank reserves is the most significant structural difference between gold and silver. Gold is held by every central bank on earth. Silver is not. This is a direct consequence of 19th century demonetization and was never reversed.

So What?

Silver's monetary demonetization in the 19th century removed the price floor that gold still enjoys (central bank reserves). This means silver's value today is driven purely by industrial demand + investment sentiment, not sovereign mandate. That makes it more volatile but also more responsive to genuine supply-demand dynamics.

5,000 Years of Silver

Monetary History Timeline[8][21][22]

The Great Demonetization[21][22][23]