Silver Price History | Historical Silver Prices | SD Bullion (2024)

If you are seeking an allocation to an alternative hard currency, thenSilver Bullion is perhaps one of the best value options given how much you can acquire in physical ounces with fiat currencies today.

Silver has proven itself over multiple millennia as both a store of value and humankind’s all-time used medium of exchange versus all other fiat currency renditions, commodity money proxies, or even physical gold itself.

On this Silver Price History page, we cover +5,000 years of silver values and silver price history from ancient Egypt to today.

Welcome to our Silver Prices History Page

Silver Price History (United States)

Most of our website visitors are from the USA and for that reason, we will begin with charts covering the US dollar price of silver since the founding of the United States of America (USA).

In our nation’s historically brief +240 year history, the price of silver has swung from as low as 25¢ oz amid the Great Depression 1932-1933 to two various high points of some $50 oz in fiat Federal Reserve note valuations.

in both early 1980 and the early spring of 2011 the fiat US dollar price per troy ounce of silver was around $50 oz USD. You can learn more about those two specific silver price highs here.

In the following US silver price history chart, you will see the first price spike occurred during and just after the US Civil War ended and price manias in both silver and gold ensued. Perhaps much in part thanks to the large issuances of fiat currency Greenbacks to finance the Union's war victory.

The price of silver reached as high as $2.94 oz all the way back in the year 1864. By the year 1869, the cost of gold had done a near 8X multiple from it's long-enduring $20.67 oz USD price when touching about $160 oz USD that fall.

Below you can examine some significant historical dates and charts for US dollar silver prices as well as current values versus the past.

We will begin with a US dollar silver price chart covering the more than the entire history of the United States of America to date.

Silver Price Chart Long Term

Silver Price History gets very volatile after the US Civil War and Silver Demonetization

For the majority of beginning non-war US history held a $1.29 oz USD price defined by the 1792 Coinage Act.

Price volatility changed significantly for US dollar silver prices during and following the Civil War era to today.

The following video clip, provided by the 'belangp' Youtube channel, is an overview of the Crime of 1873 and how silver wasdemonetized for many decades at the end of the 19th Century in the USA and around the world.

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Silver Demonetization in United States' Cultural Context

Only 400 of these 90% Silver Quarterswould have bought that roadster as delusional late 1920s Stock Market Bulls eventually lost 90% of their market's value.

In the image above you can see losing stock speculator, Walter Thornton of New York, offering to sell hisChrysler Imperial Roadsterfor $100 USD, one day after the stock market crash (October 30, 1929).

Lowest Silver Price in History? | 1934 Silver Nationalization - Executive Order 6814

The lowest silver price per troy ounce in US dollar terms was 25¢ ozreached in late 1932 and into the year 1933.

See this fact reflected in the brief silver price chart below spanning the end of the roaring 1920s into the 1930s Great Depression below.

It was not but months later that the then US President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6814nationalizing the domestic private and mined stock of silver at 50¢ oz USD.

The result of this was some 109 million oz(see page 268) of physical silver delivered to the US Treasury in 1934. Read more about modernsilver nationalization and gold confiscations.

Silver Price Records: 1980 and 2011 Silver Price Nominal Highs of $50 oz USD

The highest prices for silver in US dollar (Federal Reserve note) terms are in the two charts below which span the respective 1970s and 21st Century silver bull markets respectively.

After the late 1960’s collapse of the gold price rigging London Gold Pool, the August 1971 Nixon Shock ushered in our current floating fiat currency exchange standard where silver prices seemingly generally gain value vs. fiat currencies over the long term.

Below is a chart of silver prices in US dollars during the years 1975 to the end of 1984. Note the price high in late January of 1980 for silver.

Silver Price Record 1980

Learn more about the 1980 Silver Price High Record

Next is a chart of silver prices in US dollars during the years 2005 to the end of 2014.

Within the following price chart, you will see silver's price run-up starting in late 2010 and into the spring of 2011 as silver's pricewent parabolic (almost straight up into April 2011).

Silver Price Record 2011

Learn more about the 2011 Silver Price High Record

Silver Production Before and After the Industrial Revolution

Silver Producing Nations Then

Silver Producing Nations Now

Silver vs Gold Mining Production History

Historical Silver Prices vs. Gold

One of the best ways to understand silver’s trading value historically is to measure it against its precious monetary cousin, gold.

For this investors often use the historic Gold Silver Ratio to understand perhaps which metal is undervalued vs. overvalued short, medium, and even in the long term.

Here is a short definition of the Gold-Silver Ratio:

Gold Silver Ratio - (n) a moving ratio measurement of the amount of silver one can buy with a fixed amount of gold. Typically in the western world, the gold to silver ratio is measured by merely dividing the gold spot price by the silver spot price. It can be measured using equal like-kind weights: grams, kilos, tonnes, troy ounces, etc.

For recorded history, the gold-silver ratio has been as low as 2.5 to a somewhat recent all-time of about 100 in the early 1940s and 1990s.

The gold-silver ratio hit about 33 in the spring of 2011 and dropped to as low as about 16 as silver and gold prices peaked in early 1980.

As of producing this content, the gold-silver ratio has risen again near and even recently above 80. The following long term charts show the respective history of silver vs. silver price ratios in the USA and UK respectively.

Silver Price History Compared to Gold

Silver Price History vs. Gold Longterm

The following content and historical data directly sourced from the bookcalled ‘Silver Bonanza,’ authored by James Blanchard III released in 1995.

Mr. Blanchard was a successful businessman and a large driving force behind the ‘re-legalization’ of private gold bullion ownership in the USA in 1975.

Only recently have we learned through Wikileaks intercepted US cables that simultaneous efforts were ongoing to discourage US citizenry from buying and saving Gold Bullion long term (but that is a COMEX silver price discovery topic of another post).

Below is nearly 5,000 years of Gold Silver Ratio data with a slight preamble of sources used:

The more ancient ratios are estimates for long periods. Those from 1600 to 1900 (AD) are yearly on periodic averages from Michael G. Mulhall, The Dictionary of Statistics, 4th ed. (London: George Routledge and Sons, 1899) and E.J. Farmer, The Conspiracy Against Silver, or a Plea for Bimetallism (New York: Greenwood Press, 1969; originally published 1886), p. 13.

The other statistics are from Steve Puetz’s Investment Letter, or from our own records. Statistics after 1900 are not yearly averages, but lows or highs that generally did not sustain for long periods. In 1980 the ratio stayed below 20 to 1 for the first two and a half months only, and touched under 16 to 1 for just a few days around January 21, 1980.