Silver Price History

Silver's price history is among the most dramatic of any commodity, marked by speculative squeezes, monetary demonetization, industrial demand shifts, and extreme volatility. From the Hunt Brothers' legendary corner in 1980 to the Reddit-fueled squeeze of 2021, silver has repeatedly captured the world's attention with explosive price moves that dwarf most other asset classes.

For centuries, silver functioned as the backbone of global monetary systems. The United States operated on a bimetallic gold-silver standard until 1873, when the Coinage Act effectively demonetized silver, an event silver advocates called the "Crime of '73." Silver coinage continued in circulation until 1965, when the U.S. Mint removed silver from dimes and quarters due to rising metal values. This long monetary history underpins silver's enduring perception as real money alongside gold.

The Hunt Brothers saga of 1979-1980 remains the defining event in silver price history. Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt accumulated an estimated 100-200 million ounces, cornering roughly half the world's deliverable supply and driving prices from under $6 to nearly $50 per ounce. The subsequent crash on Silver Thursday, March 27, 1980, saw silver lose half its value in a single day after exchanges imposed liquidation-only trading rules.

In the decades since, silver has experienced several major cycles. It bottomed near $3.50 in the early 1990s, surged to $49.51 in 2011 during the post-financial-crisis commodity boom, crashed to $12 during the COVID panic of March 2020, and saw renewed retail interest during the 2021 WallStreetBets silver squeeze. Throughout these cycles, industrial demand has grown steadily, with solar energy, electronics, and electric vehicles now consuming over half of annual silver production.