Gold is held by central banks, but silver is not. Gold was always said to be the money of kings, while silver was the money of gentlemen, and copper the money of commoners. That said, seeking out pre-1982 copper cents is not at all a bad idea, and won't cost you much.
"Gold is money, and nothing else," said JP Morgan, a man who ought to know. The ratio of gold to silver in the ground is 1:15, and in 1980 sure enough, gold went to $850 while silver went to $50, just 1/15th. Both are manipulated, but not to keep the price forever down (the central banks can't do that very easily), but to keep the rise slow and orderly.
However they can't do that indefinitely, either. Gold and silver do NOT go "up" or "down"...it's the dollar that goes up and down, and PM's reflect this. The more they print the dollar (and they're doing that like crazy right now), the 'higher' the prices of metals seem to go, by comparison.
Gold is acting as a currency right now; one reason it has inexplicably gone past the price of platinum. Silver is not yet acting as a currency, and it shows. When the common people wake up (and they will), silver should do some tricks of its own. With gold at $1750, silver would be at $116. You know that gold is going much higher; when silver catches up it could go well over $100. There is less silver above ground than there is gold, and the world's mints can't keep up with demand for their respective silver bullion coins.
|