Given that the price of gold fluctuates almost 67 times higher than silver, the logical conclusion should be that silver is much richer and easier to buy than silver. On the contrary, the evidence suggests otherwise. In fact very little silver can be found.
Known overhead silver reserves in ounces
Silver ETF SLV 295,313,780
US Eagles minted 240,418,077
Warehouses COMEX 114 102 049
Estimate of private ingots (not eagles and maples) 120,000,000
Central Fund of Canada 75 209 103
LBMA Estimated Stocks 75,000,000
Canadian maples minted 21,303,000
Silver ETF ZKB – SWISS 7,397,885
BMG Bullion Fund 5,033,609
Total 953 777 503
Gold is almost twice as much as silver in the form of ingots and investment grade coins, and this ignores the fact that 52 percent of the world’s gold is stored in jewelry. While terrestrial silver is 953 million ounces, terrestrial gold bullion is estimated at 1,803 million ounces.
It is important to note several structural differences in gold and silver funds. About half of the land gold bars are in governments. There are no known silver reserves held by governments. Although governments have historically sold their gold to fund their budgets and maintain the price of gold, there is no such easily accessible organization that could sell silver bars. Investors in precious metals often store their precious metals for periods of time measured in years, decades and lives. Most private investors will not sell their bullion with 10 percent or perhaps even 100 percent profit. So even if there is nearly 1 billion ounces of silver, the question remains as to how much of it is actually sold at prices close to today.
The cash dollar value of all silver bullion is small compared to gold or other assets. In fact, measured in dollars, silver is 1/127 gold. Many mutual funds have more than a silver market of $ 16.88 billion, however gold is more affordable to buy in big dollars. Silver may be one of the most neglected and unloved values of this century. Perhaps the reason why silver is so cheap, ironically, is that it is too rarely invested by asset managers. Is that so?