Precious Metals News & Analysis - Gold News, Silver News from Money Metals Exchange

Gold & Silver Slide | $318,000 in Gold Handed to a Stranger

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

Welcome to this week’s Market Wrap Podcast, I’m Mike Gleason.

Coming up, we’ll hear from Clive Maund, professional trader, resource sector chart analyst and contributor to https://www.moneymetals.com/news";>MoneyMetals.com. Clive shares what his highly studied analysis is showing for gold and silver in the days and months ahead, and tells us what price he said would be a mega buy type of opportunity if we see silver drop down to this level. You’ll definitely want to hear what he has to say on that.

Additionally, Clive argues how global debt has reached a critical saturation point which will require exponential money printing to service what he characterizes as a ginormous Ponzi scheme where major institutions own an outsized amount of all the assets, which in turn forces massive subsidizing of the system through inflation at the peril of ordinary citizens.

So, stick around for a tremendous conversation and catch Mike Maharrey’s interview with analyst Clive Maund, coming up after this week’s market update. And as a reminder, we would really appreciate it if you would be willing to do us a favor and please download, like, rate and subscribe to this podcast wherever you consume this content.

Gold and silver are trying to steady themselves after a rough September. Selling pressure, which had eased in recent sessions, is appearing again today as investors are still waiting for a convincing sign that the correction is over.

The immediate headwinds are familiar: a stronger dollar and elevated interest rates. The bigger question is whether those rising rates are causing financial problems that could ultimately send more investors toward precious metals.

Gold has been consolidating around $4,160 an ounce, while silver has been trading near $61 -- not far above their recent lows. As of this Friday recording both metals are slightly below those figures – more on that in a moment.

Earlier this week, softer labor-market and consumer-confidence figures helped the metals recover from Monday’s selling. Softer inflation readings and reduced expectations for another Federal Reserve rate hike in October have also offered some support.

But the bond market remains a problem.

The 10-year Treasury yield briefly surged to roughly 5.34%, its highest level since 2002, before easing toward 5.25%.

For gold and silver, higher yields can create immediate selling pressure. Some investors favor interest-paying assets over bullion. Meanwhile, the dollar’s strength makes precious metals more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

That helps explain why metals have struggled despite an unsettled world and mounting concerns about government debt.

But should investors interpret rising Treasury yields as an all-clear signal for the financial system?

We certainly wouldn’t.

Higher borrowing costs make Washington’s debt problem more expensive. They also squeeze businesses, households, and financial institutions that have grown accustomed to cheap money.

A government already borrowing heavily must devote more resources to servicing its obligations. That leaves less room to maneuver when the next crisis arrives.

Gold may feel the pressure from higher yields today. Over time, the financial strains behind those yields can strengthen the reasons people want to own it.

Another development covered by Money Metals this week involves the growing role of leveraged hedge funds in the Treasury market.

These funds often borrow money to buy bonds and profit from small price differences between related investments.

The trouble comes when borrowing conditions tighten or markets move against them. Funds may have to sell quickly to meet demands from their lenders.

That forced selling can push prices lower, trigger more demands for cash, and produce still more selling.

It’s another reason to think carefully about what constitutes financial safety. Owning physical bullion gives investors an asset whose value doesn’t depend on a leveraged trading strategy working out.

And that brings us to a very different story about gold – one involving criminals who understand its value all too well.

Money Metals published a warning today about scammers who frighten people into purchasing gold and then handing it over.

The victims are almost never precious metals investors. They’re people manipulated into obtaining bullion for criminals.

In an https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/10/02/warning-dont-hand-gold-to-strangers-at-walmart-005259";>Illinois case we recently highlighted, a 78-year-old woman was persuaded that her financial accounts were compromised. Impostors instructed her to buy gold for supposed safekeeping by federal agents.

She ultimately surrendered more than $318,000 in gold bars to a stranger in -- get this -- a Walmart parking lot!

The handoff even involved a password, apparently meant to make the operation seem official.

A password doesn’t turn a stranger into a federal agent.

These schemes can draw legitimate bullion dealers into the process. A frightened victim may be sent to an established business to purchase genuine gold, while the criminals stay behind the scenes directing the transaction.

The dealer sells a real product. The criminals then steal it from the buyer.

That distinction matters. These victims weren’t choosing gold as part of a considered investment strategy. They were following fraudulent instructions.

Money Metals is helping to expose the scheme by publishing warnings and explaining how the deception works.

We believe educating the public is part of serving precious metals owners and the broader community. An honest dealer has every reason to want these crimes stopped.

For our listeners, the practical opportunity is to share this warning with relatives and friends, especially people unfamiliar with bullion.

An unexpected instruction to liquidate savings, buy gold, and give it to an alleged agent or courier should trigger an immediate pause and independent verification.

Nobody should let a stranger’s demand for secrecy prevent them from consulting family, their financial institution, or law enforcement.

Gold is a tool for preserving its owner’s wealth. These criminals are exploiting that value to enrich themselves.

As October begins, we’ll keep watching the metals’ efforts to recover and the financial pressures beneath the headlines.

Stay patient through the volatility. Stay informed. And help others recognize when someone is trying to turn their savings into stolen gold.

Well before we get to our conversation with Clive Maund, let’s take a look at the specifics of weekly market action here and where we stand at the moment.

Gold is off nearly $150 to check in at $4,150, a 3.4% decline since last Friday’s close. Silver is off more than $4 or 6.5% and currently trades at $60.75.

Turning to the PGMs, platinum is down nearly $100 or 5.2% and comes in at $1,699, while palladium is down just over $100 to trade at $1,189 an ounce – off a full 8.0% since last Friday’s close.

Well now, without further delay, let’s get right to this week’s exclusive interview.

Mike Maharrey: Greetings. I'm Mike Maharrey, and I'm excited to be joined today by Clive Maund. Clive is a professional chart analyst. He does technical analysis. He's been doing it for many years. He covers a wide range of markets with a special focus on the resource sector. How are you doing today, Clive?

Clive Maund: Yeah, I'm doing fine. It's spring here down in Southern Chili, so I'm looking forward to summer, which not many people in the world are.

Mike Maharrey: So I'm in Florida. We're looking forward to winter because that's what we do here in Florida.

Clive Maund: There's not much of a winter in Florida. I lived in Sarasota for a while. It was beautiful.

Mike Maharrey: No, there's not much of a winter at all. That's why we love it. It's the best time of year. So, I'm excited to have you on because you do a lot of technical and chart analysis, and this is not a strong suit for me. And so I'm excited to be able to share some of your insights with the audience. And we're going to do something that I've never done on an interview before, and we're going to try to pull charts up on the screen. So, we'll see how that works. We're in a little bit of uncharted territory.

I couldn't resist. I thought that about 20 minutes ago and thought I had to throw it in. But first, what I would like for you to do, if you don't mind though, is just let folks know your approach. How do you approach this analysis? What's the technique that you're using?

Clive Maund: Well, it’s technical analysis or charting, and charting basically strips out the fundamentals. And my mentor was a famous analyst in the past called Joseph Granville, famous American analyst. And he used to say that he though most fundamentalists were from Missouri because they always had to know the reason why. But my approach is purely technical, but at the same time, I'm cognizant of certain fundamental factors like results days, the effect of discoveries, some fundamental hooks like share issues, results days and so on. But generally I've used charting or technical analysis. What you are doing is you're studying the ebb and flow of a supply demand equation, and these things move in waves or cycles. And this is basically what it's all about, is cycle analysis. And if you look at the life cycle of a stock, for example, usually what happens is a company comes to market, its stock goes through a basing or establishment phase, then it normally enters a growth phase.

And if it's in the right industry at the right time, that can go on for years and years. And like some of these tech stocks have done recently, then they go through a major growth cycle such as we've seen in tech stocks and we've lately seen in AI and so on. And eventually they top out and the bag holders buy at the top when there's usually a lot of volume and a lot of interest and a lot of press coverage. Smart money distributes to bag haulers during a large top area. And then you go into the declining phase and that usually takes the form of a series of waves down and people get suckered in all the way down because they think the good times are coming back, but they're not because the thing's gone into a downtrend. So there's an awful lot to talk about around it.

But basically it's technical analysis or charting. It's a study of the ebb and flow of supply and demand in the market itself.

Mike Maharrey: Yeah. It kind of gives a visual representation of human action. It's like taking a snapshot of people's decisions.

Clive Maund: Here’s the thing, Mike. If you present me with a table of figures, it means nothing to me because I cannot comprehend looking to great tables of numbers and so on. I have to see things visually. That's why I like things like weather charts as well. I like to see a visual representation of things because when you see a visual representation of things such as on the stock charts, you're seeing the interrelationship of the price and time without actually having to think about it in numerical terms. It's a visual representation and you're looking at the proportionality. What matters to me, it's not important to me whether a thing goes up for say from $1, the numerical change, what matters is the ratio. Say for example, if you've got a stock and it goes from $1 to $2 or it goes from $2 to $4, so $4 to $8, it's the same in the sense that one to two is 100% gain, two to four is 100% gain, four is weight, et cetera.

So, it's all to do with proportionality and the ratios and so on. And you'll see that on the annotations that I put on the charts.

Mike Maharrey: All right, so let's do this. Let's talk a little bit first about the Treasury market, which might be a little counterintuitive to folks given that this is a show typically focused on gold and silver. But Treasury yields right now are having a very strong impact on the gold and silver market. We've seen the 10-year yield and the 30-year yield at levels we haven't seen since 2002. And so, you sent me a chart that shows the trajectory of the 10-year, and I'm going to pull it up here hopefully if I cannot be too big of a boomer and properly operate my computer here. All right, so we should have that chart pulled up now. And what we're seeing is we're seeing gold on the top and then the 10-year Treasury yield over the last year. And based on what you're showing me here, I think if I'm reading this right, we're looking at a situation where we might start to see a little bit of a decline in yields which would be bullish for gold.

Is that what I'm seeing? And if you could just walk us through and explain.

Clive Maund: The reason I made a one-year chart for this 10-year Treasury yield at this time was because it's showing a fairly steady uptrend from March, and it's also showing that yields are at the top of that trend, the upper rail that uptrend. Also, if you look at the bottom of this chart, you can see the MACD indicator, which is showing how overbought treasuries are and they're extremely overbought. Whilst recognizing that securities could stay overbought, can continue higher for quite a long time, this chart on a common sense basis suggests to me that we're probably likely to see at least some consolidation and possibly a correction in yields which would take the pressure off the metals, which is why I put gold at the top of this chart because you can see that latest decline in gold was actually caused by the pressure of increasing yields and the consequent rise in the dollar in recent weeks, which is what's put the dampers on gold and silver.

But you can see that as soon as that pressure comes off, I think it's going to flip back to the upside. Another point to make with these yields is that what's happened is we've had the can has been kicked down the road, not just for years, but for decades. And what's happened is not just in the US, but globally, debt has now reached critical mass where debts are so stupendously large that the amount of money that is required simply to service the debt is enormous. I think it's a trillion a year to service the $40 trillion debt in the US. And what's happened is we've arrived at the point of debt saturation, which is why these yields are going up so much.

And it's a situation which if it continues, unless they can keep a lid on it, and the only way they can control this is to print ever more money to throw it propping up the Treasury market in the US and these other bond markets like in Japan. And if they fail, we're looking at a pan selloff across the board of pretty much everything and you'll see a temporary rally in the dollar maybe, but that would only be a relative thing. And there's going to be a bloodbath. And this has been building up for years and years, not just years, but decades because they've been kicking the can down the road and they've been doing QE endlessly and creating over more money. And the only thing that can keep it going is to keep creating money exponentially so that we end up with money becoming worthless.

As you can see, we've already got that trend in place now. So inflation is rampant. And another point to make is that I think that the big three, the BlackRock State Street and Vanguard now own 70% of the stock market. In other words, what Gerald Celente calls our “bigs,” own the stock market. And if they can get the public to foot the bill for keeping this propped up, they will. And the way they do it is by creating money out of thin air to keep a lid on yields, to keep the Treasury market propped up, and thus to keep... That's what's kept the stock market going because they're getting the little guy, the ordinary citizen to subsidize it all through inflation. So in other words, create trillions of dollars out of thin air to throw propping everything up and the little guy gets stuck with the bill for inflation, the price of everything rising.

It's basically a Ponzi scheme.

Mike Maharrey: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's interesting too that so many folks, they see the rise in yields and so it does put the selling pressure on gold as we've seen through the chart. And yet it's an inflation indicator and I'm not sure it's wise to be unloading your inflation hedge in a situation.

Clive Maund: And I think also we could be in a situation like in the late '70s where you have rising yields and rising gold as well because of the massive inflationary implications of everything that's going on and people are just going to want to have real money, which gold is because all this other stuff is garbage basically. I consider treasuries to be garbage. And here's a very important point I'd like to make. And I said in some of my recent articles, which is that there are only two reasons to buy treasuries. One, this is putting it somewhat kindly. I said the first reason is that you are retarded because I didn't want to say stupid because it's a bit unkind and I don't like insulting people. And the second reason is that you are using other people's money, which is what say these funds and pension funds, they don't care about the actual recipients of those funds at the end of the day. They just want their rake off or backhand or whatever. These are the only two reasons to buy treasuries is that you are just doing it with other people's money or you are retarded because why would you buy government paper, government debt when all the currencies in the world are not backed by anything solid? This is a fiat system, which means that they can create money out of thin air until the cows come home.

If the currencies are actually backed by something solid as they used to be by gold principally, then it would perhaps make sense to buy government debt. But when you're living in a world where this fiat currency is not backed by anything of any substance and they've just got a license to print money in unlimited quantities, and I understand now that the Federal Reserve in the US does not have to seek congressional approval or Treasury to create money out of thin air. They just create as much as they like to suit themselves. So it's basically a ginormous Ponzi scheme. Why would you support that? So the case for gold and silver could not be stronger. Regardless, I always say to people as well, so what? Maybe gold falls 50 or $100 an amps. Why does that matter? You are holding gold because it's real money. It never loses its real value.

Mike Maharrey: Yeah, absolutely. I wrote an article just this morning talking about the bonds that really the only big buyers out there right now are hedge funds and they're doing it with leverage as you put other people's money. So, there you go.

Clive Maund: Yeah, exactly. Now that's golden one.

Mike Maharrey: All tight, so we're going to share the screen again and this time we're going to pull up a chart. It's a three-month gold chart and it should be popped up there. So, what am I seeing here?

Clive Maund: Well, I told people a few weeks ago, but I thought that this was going to break down because I saw a small head and shoulders top, but this is not like a terminal thing because it's a small head and shoulders top. The implications of this head and shoulders top are just for the short to medium term, no more than that. And actually on longer term charts, you can see that pattern actually forms the handle of a larger cup and handle base, which suggests that gold's going back up. Now on this occasion, I didn't have time to produce a longer term chart, medium term chart for gold going back two or three years, which would show that what it's doing is it's reacting back to the upper boundary of a bullish falling wedge. I think that's what's going on. And while we could see some more short-term downside until yields roll over, this is going to flip back to the upside, I think.

The point for traders to watch is that to turn outright bullish on gold, you want to see it do one of two things. One is drop back to that support shown, I think it's $3,900 or something like that, $3,950. You want to see gold maybe drop back there. That would be a good point to buy with a strong support. Or on the other hand, if the yields roll over, maybe oil drops and it flips back to the upside, you want to see gold break above what was support at the bottom of that head and shoulders top, lower boundary of that head and shoulders top, and there's no resistance. And of course the people who bought in that patent will be sellers when it gets up to, technically speaking, will be sellers when it gets up to the lower boundary of that head and shoulders. So, you find some resistance there.

But once it breaks above that, clearly breaks above that, then it's off to the races again. I think it's going up big time.

Mike Maharrey: Yeah. I kind of feel like that the conflict in Iran is this big lid that has been stuck on top of the precious metals markets because obviously it's the Strait of Hormuz being closed, the oil price pressure, and those are the things that are driving this rising yield narrative and inflation narrative. I think when that lid is pulled off, you can see the sky is the limit.

Clive Maund: Well, going back to that chart, going back to that yields chart, the 10-year yield chart, I had the feeling that probably yields could back off and oil could back off maybe over the next few weeks. The reason being, because we've got the midterms coming up, is it the 2nd of November? I'm surmising that Trump and the Republican Party would like to see the oil price back off ahead of the elections, possibly significantly.

So, this is why now we're looking at that Brent Crude, one-year chart for Brent Crude, and you can see that there's a potential double top there. I surmised that if Republican Party or Trump want to succeed in getting oil to back off, this will mean they will have to make conciliatory noises towards Iran. They've been doing this all summer anyway, be saying, "Oh, the deal's just around the corner." So apparently they've done it back 19 times. And some people have been front running these announcements. I couldn't

Imagine who, of course, but they've been front running these announcements, which often happen over the weekend, or you have this military activity over the weekend and it all clears up before the market opens, and there's suddenly an announcement before the market opens on Monday. Oh, we're going to have a deal soon, something like that. So I would think that it's quite possible, I'm not saying it's going to happen, but if I was in Trump's shoes, all things being equal, which they're not, of course, I might do things, make conciliatory noises to bring the oil price down ahead of the midterms, which would also bring the yields down, which makes sense at this juncture because looking at that chart for yields, we can see that it could react back across that uptrend now.

Mike Maharrey: Yeah, very interesting. All right, so this is working really well. I'm kind of excited. I hope this turns out as good once it's all edited as it seems to be going. So, the next one I'm going to share here, let me pull the sharing back up. This should be the silver three months, very similar. I'm now becoming a technical analyst, and I can actually see a little head and shoulders there, right?

Clive Maund: Yeah. Well, the thing is about this, Mike, I don't actually need to say much about this because the viewers will readily understand that this looks almost identical to the gold chart and the gold zone largely moving in tandem, and you can see it did the same. It broke down from head and shoulders top. It could drop down to that support down there, but it could flip to the upside at any time. I'd rather think that because there was some psychological damage caused by that breakdown, so it wouldn't surprise me if it didn't make a small bear flag here and maybe drift down towards that major support of $55. And when we come to look at the very long-term chart for silver, it is extraordinarily bullish. Yeah,

Mike Maharrey: We're going to pull that up in a second.

Clive Maund: The major buy spot for silver, we're very close to it now, in fact. And if you watch any of the videos by Mike Maloney, who I respect, I believe he's right. It's going much, much higher.

Mike Maharrey: Yeah. What is the triangle? What's the significance

Clive Maund: Of the triangle? Oh, that triangle there, it's just a period of indecision where the bulls and bears are slugging it out until you get a decision, you get something that tips it one way or the other.

Mike Maharrey: Interesting.

Clive Maund: And the triangle formed, one of the reasons that triangle formed or it did was that the market, or in this case silver, was waiting for that 50-day moving average falling overhead to drop down and close the gap with it somewhat, which will be unwinding its oversold condition. And you can see that as that triangle formed, the MACD indicator at the bottom of the chart was rising steadily, which was providing an indication it looked more and more likely to break to the upside, which it did.

Mike Maharrey: Interesting. All right, so you mentioned the big silver chart, and here it is, and we have a real nice, very obvious cup and handle pattern. Explain what that tells folks.

Clive Maund: Well, this is actually... I sent you the original chart that I posted sometime last year where I used this chart. I've correctly interpreted this ginormous... I've never seen anything like it. This is my favorite chart of all time, actually. I've never seen such a huge clear cup and handle pattern in my life in anything, and I've been in this business for decades, and I spotted this last year. I figured that silver was coming up for a massive breakout, and we saw that late last year when it zoomed up to $120.

Now, it's quite normal when something breaks out of a massive pattern like this cup and handle. It's quite normal to have a post-breakout reaction. That is what we have since seen, and it's actually, to be honest, it was such a strong breakout. You can see it on the volume in the silver proxy, I share silver trust. I'm actually rather surprised that it has reacted back as far as it has, but it's quite normal to have a post-breakout reaction back to the support at the upper boundary of the pattern that it's broken out of, and that's what we've seen in recent months. And of course, with silver reacting back to the upper boundary, this enormous 45-year cup and handle pattern, it means it's a mega buy anywhere in this area near the support of the top of this patent. So, it could drift a little bit lower short term, but down towards, say, 50, 55, but that would be about it.

And in this area with silver, anywhere between say 50 and 60, it's a very strong buy, and this chart is calling silver much, much higher in the years ahead. And if I was a holder of silver, I would not be worried at all. I would just be looking to stack more and more of it.

I would sleep easy. Seeing this chart, I would have no qualms at all about being a holder of silver. I would just sleep easy in my bed, sweet dreams and so on. I wouldn't worry. I'm sitting there sweating at night and sitting up in bed, sweating, worrying about the price of silver because again, as with gold, you're talking real money here.

Mike Maharrey: Yeah, it's like you'll be floating on a silver cloud.

Clive Maund: Yeah. I mean, when you talk about treasuries, this is garbage. All this government paper is pure garbage, and you have to be... Well, I've said before when I was thinking about people who own this stuff. So as I say, I think we're very, very close to a major buy spot for silver, and it's going much, much higher in the months and years ahead.

Mike Maharrey: I agree with you, and the macro environment supports that hypothesis when you look at the persistent deficits that we have in supply. We've seen these two big silver squeezes where silver gets displaced in the comic system and in London. So yeah, it's a ripe for big things. This is really great. I really appreciate you taking me through these charts. I think it was very educational. I think folks will really get a lot out of it, and I think it's really helpful to see that visualization. It is for me. I'm not so much a visual person, so to actually be able to look at the pictures, it's very helpful, and I appreciate that. So before I let you go, I do want you to give folks all the information that they need to find you if they want to avail themselves to the work that you're doing, because this is what you do.

And you not only do this with gold and silver, you do this with mining stocks and other stocks and investments as well. You sent me a whole bunch of charts. We don't have time to go through all of them right now. Where can folks find you?

Clive Maund: Well, I've got a YouTube channel. I've got a YouTube channel. Just type my name in Clive Maund and it will come up. I only started, I think, about six months or a year ago, so it's kind of building up slowly, but I'm getting more accustomed to doing these YouTube videos. And my website is clivemaund.com. Now, this website has been going since 2003, so that's a long time, 23 years. I started the website in 2003 because I saw a major bull market coming in gold and silver, and that is what we saw during the 2000s until it peaked in 2011. Then it went adrift after that. We had a massive, massive head and shoulders consolidation pattern from 2011 through two or three years ago in gold. Yes, my website is clivemon.com. It's a subscription website. Modest to maintenance of one month, three month, I think there's a six-month subscription as well.

I've been working on it happily for years. We cover gold and silver stocks, base metals as well, copper, not all of them, but principally copper, which I find interesting. I don't really very much... Look at Platinum and Palladium, but I don't really diversify much into things like nickel and tin and so on. Also, we've been following the oil sector closely on the site recently because of course it's been so topical. It's been one of the most important subjects in the world. And I heard just yesterday that there's a diesel emergency has been announced in Texas where the supplies of diesel are critical. And so yes, we look at oil as well, natural gas sometimes, and the broad market. We follow the broad market as well, and sometimes tech stocks and AI and these things. In the past, I had a go at covering cannabis stocks when they were all the raise, which was fun.

But after smoking a few joints, I decided to call it a down there. I don't mean it. I’m joking. But anyway, yeah, so if people who are interested, you're most welcome to come over and join us on cliveborn.com. Be very pleased to see anybody there. And so that's it really for now. And actually, I've been following the Money Matters website for some time because I think it's an excellent site, and there's all kinds of ways of buying gold and silver on the site that I've seen, which I'm going to be recommending it more and more to my people who want to buy gold and silver.

Mike Maharrey: Well, I appreciate that. And I think folks got a good sense of the work that you're doing, and it's high quality, and it will definitely help you be able to visualize what's going on in the markets. And I think for a lot of people, a picture is worth a thousand words. So I encourage folks to go check out Clive's website, check out his work, support him, and I want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy day, and thank you for

Clive Maund: Your - Well, just one last point, Mike. Increasingly dark and dangerous times, the field in which we are working, which is gold and silver, is a way to give people hope, especially financial hope in these really difficult times. And this is really what my website is all about. I want to give people a way to move forward in difficult times.

Mike Maharrey: Absolutely. And I appreciate that. And I feel the same way. It's a service to folks because we have a government that's constantly devaluing our money, stealing our purchasing power, and there are ways to protect ourselves. So we're trying to educate folks and let them know, "Hey, there is a way. It's not perfect and it's not easy, but we can navigate our way through this and appreciate the work that you're doing. Again, thank you so much for taking a little bit of time, and thank you for your patience with getting all the technical stuff sorted out. I think it went swimmingly. We'll see what the final product looks like, but I think everything went really well, so thank you so much for that.

Clive Maund: All right, great. Thanks, Mike. Good talking with you.

Good analysis there from Clive Maund and it was great to finally have him on. For those of you who follow our prolific precious metals news site – found at https://www.moneymetals.com/news";>MoneyMetals.com/news – you’ve probably seen some of Clive’s stuff as he’s a semi-regular contributor for us. But again, it was great to get him on the podcast, and I hope you enjoyed that information.

Well, that will do it for this week. Be sure to check back next Friday for our next Weekly Market Wrap Podcast. And remember to tune in to midweek podcast as well, hosted by Mike Maharrey.

To check out any of our audio programs just visit https://www.moneymetals.com/podcasts";>MoneyMetals.com/podcasts or find them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. And as a big help to us we would ask you to please like, subscribe, download and rate our podcasts. Doing so helps us extend the reach of this material.

Until next time, this has been Mike Gleason with https://www.moneymetals.com/";>Money Metals Exchange, thanks for listening and have a wonderful first weekend of October everybody.

California Excludes Coin Dealers from Secondhand-Dealer Harassment Rules

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

(Sacramento, California – October 2, 2026) – With Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature on AB 2633, California has excluded coin dealers from the provisions that regulate secondhand dealers, scoring a victory for dedicated precious metals dealers across the state.

Current California law already excludes coins and commercial grade bullion from the legal definition of “tangible personal property,” and already excludes coin dealers from the definition of “secondhand dealer.” AB 2633 preserves that product exclusion and makes the secondhand dealer reporting and hold rules inapplicable to coin dealers.

Money Metals and the https://www.soundmoneydefense.org/";>Sound Money Defense League supported the measure and urged the governor to sign it.

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Increased regulations associated with secondhand dealers are not appropriate for coin and bullion dealers. Precious metal bullion is fungible, generic, and would usually be unidentifiable in the case of theft or missing items. This is in contrast to jewelry or unique items, including those containing serial numbers.

California now follows Florida’s 2023 approach on precious metals bullion. That law excluded gold, silver, platinum, palladium, or rhodium bullion that has been assayed and is marked as to its weight and fineness from the definition of “secondhand goods,” ending the 30-day hold and the required transaction filings that include customers’ personal information.

As more individuals seek a safe place to store their savings, facilitators of these transactions should have their burdens removed, not increased. Removing outdated or inappropriate systems reduces costs and makes the industry more accessible for Californians across the state.

AB 2633 makes it clear that dealers of coins and commercial grade bullion are not swept into this regulatory framework that was not intended for them.

“We’re glad California made it explicit that coin and bullion dealers are not secondhand dealers. Precious metals are held as savings, not as unique secondhand goods,” said https://www.soundmoneydefense.org/about-us";>Jp Cortez, executive director of the Sound Money Defense League. “The reporting and hold rules built for jewelry and pawned items do not belong on coin and bullion dealers,” continued Cortez.

The overwhelming trend is to remove taxes and impediments surrounding gold and silver. Since 2014, the Sound Money Defense League has worked successfully in support of sound money on dozens of pieces of legislation across the country.

The League has also worked on the https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/06/25/us-senators-file-silver-act-national-security-amendment-to-address-dangerous-concentration-in-precious-metals-markets-005008";>federal SILVER Act to address national security and market efficiency problems associated with the dangerous geographic concentration of exchange approved precious metals depositories within 150 miles of New York City.

Warning! Don't Hand Gold to Strangers at Walmart

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

You can file this under the category of "things I never thought I'd need to write."

Ladies and gentlemen, don’t give gold to a stranger in a Walmart parking lot, even if they say, “black bug!”

Yes, this happened.

In real life.

It started last April when a pop-up appeared on a 78-year-old woman’s computer in southern Illinois.

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She’d been hacked.

So the woman, identified as D.B. in court documents, googled Microsoft support and called the first option that appeared on her screen.

And here’s the first lesson. You need to be careful with Google – especially those first “sponsored” links. Scammers can buy them too. If you’re looking for a company, go down into the results and find the unsponsored entry and double-check that the link itself looks legit. If you notice strange spellings or random characters, it’s probably a scammy link.

D.B. chose poorly and ended up clicking a scammy link. When she dialed the number, she connected with “Mike Williams,” who claimed he was a supervisor on Microsoft’s fraud prevention team.

Mike had bad news.

D.B.’s computer had been hacked and her personal data potentially compromised. Of course, Mike needed to access her computer to see how bad things were.

That's where D.B. made her second big mistake.

She let him into her computer.

And that’s when things got bad.

It was the beginning of what Capitol News Illinois called “an elaborate months-long scheme.”

Mike passed D.B. along to “Kevin Jones,” who claimed to be a fraud agent with Edward Jones Investments. Based on the Capitol News description, he sounds like the classic abusive boyfriend.

“Jones told D.B. that her Edward Jones account had indeed been compromised — and protecting it would require extreme measures. He then had her sign a purported nondisclosure agreement in which D.B. agreed to keep the operation a secret from family and law enforcement. Jones mandated that D.B. maintain regular contact with him, asking that she send ‘good morning’ and ‘good night’ texts every day. She was provided a ‘tracker phone’ that Jones monitored.”

Yikes.

Jones convinced D.B. to move $1.8 million from her investment accounts into money market accounts. Then they told her to buy gold bars that federal agents could put in safekeeping while they secured her compromised accounts.

D.B. bought over $823,000 in gold.

Jones instructed her to package gold so she could hand it off to a federal Treasury agent in the parking lot of a Marion, Illinois, Walmart. He would identify himself with the code word, “black bug.”

D.B. did as instructed and handed over $318,459 in gold bars.

She’ll never see them again.

I probably don’t need to say this – or maybe I do. If a “federal agent” asks you to hand off gold in a Walmart parking lot, he is 100 percent NOT a federal agent. So, just don’t.

Now, you might be thinking, ‘How can anybody fall for this? I certainly wouldn’t.’ And you might not. But a lot of people do, and as a gold dealer told Capitol News, even smart people get duped because “people will do anything the minute they feel fear.”

The proof is in the numbers. According to the FBI, it documented 1,700 scams involving transfers of bulk cash or gold bars since 2023, resulting in $186 million in losses.

You have to give these scammers credit for getting gold. Transferring large amounts of cash is easy to trace. Gold – not so much.

Gold is real money. They can take those bars anyplace in the world, and somebody will take them in exchange for goods and services, or the fiat currency of their choice. Everybody might not want a dollar, or a yuan, or a yen. Everybody wants gold.

As a bullion dealer told Capitol News Illinois, “Gold can be a smart investment alongside traditional portfolios, but it’s also attractive to scammers because it’s hard to trace once it changes hands.”

Needless to say, the scammers were pleased with the exchange and immediately began pressing D.B. to liquidate more assets and buy more gold.

But by this point, our victim finally started getting suspicious. She called the police when she received documents from Jones related to the first handoff, and the seal didn’t look real.

With the help of law enforcement, D.B. set up another gold drop. This time they were to meet in the parking lot of a local church, and the password was “poker queen.”

Just so you know, handing gold to people you don’t know in the church parking lot isn’t any better than doing it at Walmart.

However, handing him a box of sandbags – that’s cool.

And that’s exactly what D.B. did.

Police arrested our intrepid “federal agent” a few minutes later.

His name was Ruoyu Lian, a 30-year-old who lived in Flushing, New York. According to the Capitol News, Lian pleaded guilty to felony wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, offenses that could carry sentences of up to 20 years and $250,000 in fines each.

He was the only person arrested in the case.

Investigators said Lian was a low-level player in the conspiracy. County State’s Attorney Joe Cervantez said he received very little pay (about 2 weeks’ pay at his restaurant job in N.Y.) to fly to Illinois and play the role of federal agent.

“Lian is expendable to them,” Cervantez said. “At the end of the day, everybody in the scheme is still on to the next one.”

So, beware. They’re out there trolling for the next victim. You can avoid scams like this by taking some basic precautions.

Here are some tips that will help you sniff out and avoid scams.

If someone asks you to move your money, treat it as a red flag. Government agents will never tell you to empty your bank account, move cash, or buy gold. They certainly won’t tell you to meet them at Walmart.
Verify independently. If somebody gets you on the phone, hang up and dial the bank or company directly. And remember, beware of those Google links.
Don’t act on unexpected computer warnings. They are almost always scams. Don’t call pop-up numbers or click pop-up links. And for heaven’s sake, don’t give strangers access to your computer.
If you feel pressured, you are. Treat it as a red flag.
Only do business with established, trusted companies such as Money Metals.

Trump Wants to Sell Venezuelan Gold, Government Rules Backfiring

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

Last March, President Donald Trump sat in the Roosevelt Room admiring 10 Venezuelan gold bars. White House officials said they joked about keeping the gold as aides snapped photos. (They weren't exactly kidding, by the way.)

Meanwhile, hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan gold sits untouched in warehouses.

As it turns out, getting the gold was the easy part.

Getting it processed and sold is a different matter.

Due to a tangle of regulations intended to deem some gold "bad" and other gold "good," U.S. refiners don’t want to touch the Venezuelan gold. They worry they will run afoul of rules designed to trace and track gold sources and ensure it meets “industry standards.”

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After the U.S. deposed Nicolás Maduro, it granted Trafigura the right to sell Venezuelan oil. The company ranks among the world’s largest trading houses.

But Trafigura wanted more. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/world/americas/venezuela-gold-trump.html";>According to the https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/28/world/americas/venezuela-gold-trump.html";>New York Times, company executives argued that Venezuelan gold was a national security issue, telling the Trump administration that it could “wrest control of a lawless industry and put Venezuela’s minerals in the hands of the U.S. government and its partners.”

In March, the administration lifted sanctions, allowing the import of Venezuelan gold. Trafigura stepped up to the plate in what the White House called “a historic deal.”

Six months later, the gold remains in storage “under Trafigura control,” according to a company statement issued to https://www.occrp.org/en/news/trafigura-bought-venezuelan-gold-in-historic-us-deal-in-march-its-still-in-storage"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">the “Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).

OCCRP reported that the company refused to comment on why it hasn't sold the gold in the U.S., but experts say it’s due to “supply chain issues.”

“Venezuelan gold is extracted from a lawless and violent region, and it may be difficult to meet U.S. requirements to show it has been produced ethically.”

After granting Trafigura the right to sell Venezuelan gold, the White House issued a statement, saying, “Trafigura had a viable and quick plan to legitimately market gold following years of corrupt Venezuelan practices.”

That’s all well and good, but once the gold reached the U.S., refiners didn’t want to touch it. As the Times put it, “Refiners would need to guarantee, under international rules, that the gold has not funded gangs, environmental destruction or corruption.”

That's because the U.S. government, through the Treasury Department, has pushed draconian domestic and international sourcing rules that scare the heck out of refineries across the globe. These firms risk financial harm, investigations, and/or loss of accreditations if they fail to comply with constantly evolving government dictates declaring that this or that particular source of gold illegal, for whatever reason.

U.S. Treasury's Rules Blow Up in Everyone's Faces

In March 2018, the Trump administration issued an executive order authorizing sanctions against the Venezuelan gold sector. The gold license required reports identifying the parties, quantities, prices, transaction dates, government payments, and documentation of plans to establish the gold’s chain of custody. In March, the administration eased the sanctions, only requiring chain of custody.

But officials misjudged the impact of international regulations put in place at Washington's behest. They treated Trump's “authorization” to buy Venezuelan gold as if it could resolve a much larger compliance problem. While the U.S. government eased sanctions, it couldn’t eliminate the crushingly burdensome international regulatory framework it essentially built.

Refiners accredited by the London Bullion Market Association must independently meet so-called “responsible-sourcing standards,” including assessing risks involving armed groups, human rights abuses, and money laundering. U.S. permission to process Venezuelan gold does not waive those industry requirements.

In effect, the federal government made trading Venezuelan gold a compliance hazard and then encouraged companies to participate.

Simon Houghton-Dodd, a senior manager with Asahi Refining, reflects the views of many in the industry.

“Do we want to be the first refiner to publicly announce that we are receiving Venezuelan gold?”

According to the Times, refiners must establish that the gold they refine isn’t linked to criminality and environmental “abuse.” That’s easier said than done, especially given the situation in Venezuela. The Times said its investigation turned up gang-linked gold entering the supply chain.

In effect, the U.S. government weaponized rules against supposedly illicit gold sources as part of its global capital controls. Other countries followed the lead. Now, the administration wants to flip the script, but refineries can't or won't touch the gold because of the sourcing rules imposed on them. Violating the rules could incur significant penalties, up to and including losing certifications.

In other words, the U.S. shot itself in the foot with its own gun.

Now refiners must decide whether the potential return justifies the risk. Political enthusiasm in D.C. doesn't eliminate that calculation.

The Broader Context

This raises a question: why were the U.S. and the international community so eager to impose strict controls on gold?

If you ask, they'll say it's to stop criminals and protect the environment. However, the part they don't say out loud is that they want to maintain as much control over money as possible.

Gold is money, and governments hate it precisely because it's hard to control.

Mind you, they don't hate gold for themselves, as evidenced by the https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/03/central-banks-piled-in-more-gold-in-july-005182";>rapid expansion of central bank gold reserves. But they would prefer that you not have it. And they especially prefer that their enemies not have it.

They want everyone to rely on their fiat currencies that they can manipulate with ease.

Enter this complex tangle of rules and regulations designed to delegitimize gold based on who produces or uses it.

But at the proverbial end of the day, gold is gold. And regulating it can become tricky, as the Trump administration learned. It's tough to impose regulations on thee and not on me.

So, the U.S. government finds itself in a position where it wants to use what it now suddenly views as "good gold" but can't because it has pushed for a global regulatory regime to control "bad gold."

South Korea Finally Set to Get More Real Gold

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

In August, South Korea announced plans to expand its gold reserves, but so far it’s only bought paper.

Now it looks like the country’s central bank is finally set to get the real thing.

To date, the Bank of Korea’s “gold” reserve expansion has involved https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/08/27/south-korea-expands-paper-instead-of-gold-reserves-005165";>buying shares of the SPDR Gold Trust ETF. According to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the Korean central bank purchased 679,765 shares of the ETF in Q2 of this year. The central bank's ETF holdings were valued at ₩354.5 billion ($250.41 million) at the end of June.

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There’s nothing wrong with ETF investing, but https://youtu.be/7aP6VbgXVeM?si=O3yPeFkTYFHOXrHe"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">it isn’t the same as buying physical gold.

A gold-backed ETF generally tracks the price of gold, but other dynamics are in play, so it's not a one-to-one correlation. And while this is a convenient way to play gold's price, you don’t own any gold. You own paper.

That means South Korea has only expanded its paper reserves so far.

That appears about to change.

A Bank of Korea official said a transaction system to purchase physical gold from local producers will be up and running by December 14.

“After the transaction system is ready in December as planned, we plan to purchase.”

It remains unclear exactly how much gold South Korea plans to purchase. Officials say about 1 tonne of gold should be available to the central bank when purchases begin.

According to the August announcement, Korea Exchange and the Korea Securities Depository will facilitate the transactions, with domestic gold producer LS MnM and Korea Zinc supplying eligible gold. The bank will buy gold that would have been exported at contract prices.

The two Korean gold miners produce 4 to 5 tonnes of gold annually. Bank of Korea officials said they will purchase some of that output “when market and reserve management conditions are favorable.”

The scheme is structured so the Bank of Korea can settle the transactions in Korean won, meaning it will not have to dip into its foreign exchange reserves.

The gold will reportedly be stored in South Korea. Most of the country’s gold reserves are held in London vaults.

The Bank of Korea hasn't expanded its gold reserves in 13 years. The country currently holds just over 104 tonnes of gold, about 1.1 percent of the country’s total reserves.

Bank of Korea Reserve Management Group head Jeong Hee-sup said ever-increasing geopolitical risk has increased interest in gold as a safe haven, and he emphasized that the domestic gold purchases are part of a long-term strategy to expand the country’s gold reserves.

"We do not plan to make a large purchase all at once. We intend to gradually increase the share of gold according to medium- and long-term needs."

Central banks have been buying gold to lower their exposure to the U.S. dollar. Many countries have become wary of the https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2024/02/29/could-weaponization-of-the-dollar-as-a-foreign-policy-billy-club-accelerate-de-dollarization-003013";>U.S.’s weaponization of the currency and the federal government's https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/07/16/us-government-runs-another-big-deficit-in-june-as-interest-expense-climbs-005073";>fiscal irresponsibility. During a central bank panel discussion in London last summer, Hee-sup indicated that these concerns are top of mind in South Korea as well.

“Given gold's role as an inflation hedge and its potential as an alternative to the U.S. dollar, it's evident that gold should be considered one of the viable assets from a medium- to long-term perspective.”

Korea Investment and Securities analyst Jung Hyun-jong said the central bank's renewed interest in gold is part of a broader trend in South Korea.

"In the past, jewelry demand accounted for more than half of the gold market, but the shares of investment and central bank demand have increased sharply in recent years. This suggests that gold is shifting in status from a simple consumer commodity to a financial asset and an alternative currency that can serve as a hedge against geopolitical risks, inflation, and currency depreciation.”

Inflation Adjusted Silver Price - Chart and Yearly Prices in Today's Dollars Since 1913 - Real 1980 Peak Explained, CPI-U Math, and Biggest Real Drops - Money Metals

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

Silver made headlines for its January 29, 2026 high of $121. This price was reported as a historic high, and it was … until you factor in inflation. Adjusted for inflation, the real historic high for silver was $212.91 per ounce in August 2026 dollars.

That figure starts with the $49.45 https://www.lbma.org.uk/prices-and-data/lbma-silver-price";>LBMA silver fix on January 18, 1980. It then restates that price with the https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SA0";>Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). With the mid-morning price of $61.36 per ounce on Monday, September 28, 2026, silver sits at roughly 70% below that historic high.

Key figures (August 2026 dollars)

Measure	Price
Real 1980 peak (January 18, 1980 LBMA fix)	$212.91
Real 2011 peak (April 28, 2011 LBMA fix)	$72.53
January 29, 2026 nominal high, in real terms	$125.31
Spot price, September 28, 2026	$61.36
Spot as a share of the real 1980 peak	28.8%

You may have seen other figures reported for the 1980 high when adjusted for inflation. There is a range of figures running from about $148 to $213. This page shows where each one comes from, so you can see why they differ.

Inflation-Adjusted Silver Price Chart (1913 to 2025)

Silver's real (inflation-adjusted) price versus its nominal price, 1913 to 2025. Real prices use BLS CPI-U (U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted), restated to August 2026. Lines are annual averages: USGS Data Series 140 unit value of apparent consumption for 1913 to 1968, and Money Metals market annual averages from 1969. Dots mark single-day records: the LBMA fixes of January 18, 1980 and April 28, 2011, and the January 29, 2026 spot high.

Nominal vs Real Silver Prices

The nominal price is the number of dollars an ounce costs on any given day. It is the number you see reported in headlines and on spot price trackers on precious metals sites.

A real price measures something different. Rather than simply asking how many dollars silver ounces are worth, the real price measures the buying power of that ounce.

To find that answer, economists scale old prices by the change in a price index. Here, that index is CPI-U which tracks what U.S. households pay for a broad basket of goods and services.

There can be a serious disparity between those two figures. A single dollar in January 1980 bought about 4.3 times as much as a dollar in August 2026. That means the $49.45 silver price of the time carried the same purchasing power as $212.91 carries today.

The chart above shows two lines. The orange line is the price people paid at the time. The blue line is that same price in August 2026 dollars. The chart uses a log scale, so equal gaps show equal percent moves.

Three dots mark single-day records. The lines are yearly averages, so they sit below the dots. A yearly average smooths away a spike that lasted only days, like the one in January 1980.

The dotted line at 1969 marks a change in data. Prior to 1969, the chart uses the https://www.usgs.gov/media/files/silver-historical-statistics-data-series-140";>U.S. Geological Survey’s silver statistics. USGS reports a “unit value of apparent consumption.” That is a cost per ton of silver used in the U.S., not a trading price. After 1969 and onward, the chart uses the market averages in our https://www.moneymetals.com/silver-price-history";>silver price history table.

What Was the Highest Inflation-Adjusted Silver Price?

Silver’s highest real price is $212.91 per ounce, a record it reached on January 18, 1980. That is the $49.45 London fix from that day, but adjusted with CPI-U to August 2026 dollars. You can track the live nominal price on our https://www.moneymetals.com/silver-price";>silver price page.

There are two data inputs that decide any real price. First is the 1980 price you choose to start with. The second is which month’s CPI you use as the present value. Change either input, and the real price can move by tens of dollars.

Why You See So Many Different Numbers for the 1980 High

Here are the figures that show up most often online. The last column explains the gap.

Source	Real 1980 figure	1980 price used	CPI "today" month	Why it differs
Money Metals (this page)	$212.91	$49.45 LBMA fix, Jan. 18, 1980	August 2026	Benchmark peak, latest CPI month
https://www.herobullion.com/silvers-highest-price-ever/";>Hero Bullion	$203.15	$49.45	Not stated	CPI month not named
https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/01/07/why-silver-is-not-in-a-bubble-004594";>Jesse Colombo, Money Metals (Jan. 7, 2026)	About $200	Not stated	Not stated	Read from a chart, rounded
https://www.apmex.com/silver-price";>APMEX	$194.42	$49.45	2025	Uses 1980's full-year CPI, not January's
https://www.reddit.com/r/Silverbugs/comments/1lz1erq/the_highest_price_of_silver_ever_was_not_50_it/";>Reddit r/Silverbugs thread	About $190	About $50	Not stated	Forum estimate
https://inflationdata.com/articles/inflation-adjusted-silver-prices/";>InflationData	$172.86	$41.50	December 2025	Lower January 1980 price
https://tavexbullion.co.uk/silver-prices-over-the-last-100-years-inflation-adjustment/";>Tavex	About $170	$50	Not stated	"Depending on the inflation rate"
https://inflationdata.com/articles/inflation-adjusted-silver-prices/";>InflationData	$148.21	$36.09 (Feb. 1980 average)	December 2025	Monthly average smooths the spike

Two of these can be checked with math. APMEX’s $194.42 matches $49.45 multiplied by August 2025 CPI (323.976), divided by 1980’s yearly average CPI (82.4). But silver peaked in January, when CPI was only 77.8. Using the yearly average makes the 1980 dollar look weaker than it was. That lowers the answer.

InflationData’s $172.86 matches $41.50 times December 2025 CPI (324.054), divided by January 1980 CPI (77.8). The math works out, it just starts from a lower price and an older “today.”

Our own https://www.moneymetals.com/price/silver-price-all-time-high";>silver price all-time high page uses the same basis as this page. It rounds the result to about $213.

Intraday Spike, Daily Fix, or Monthly Average: Which One Counts?

Each basis answers a slightly different question.

1980 price basis	Nominal price	Real price (August 2026 dollars)
COMEX intraday high	$50.35	$216.79
LBMA fix, Jan. 18, 1980	$49.45	$212.91
February 1980 monthly average	$36.09	$153.22

We use the LBMA fix in this piece. It is a public benchmark price that sets once a day. Buyers and sellers could trade at that price.

The COMEX intraday high of $50.35 was very brief. In a short period, the price fell back down to lower levels. That’s an important thing to note when it comes to silver prices. Often, people use monthly averages to track the development of the silver price. Monthly averages are helpful, but they are not the price anyone paid on a given day. Our https://www.moneymetals.com/gold-price-history";>gold price history page uses the same benchmark approach for gold.

Silver's Record Highs in Today's Dollars

This table lets you place today’s spot price against each major peak. The last column shows how much of each peak’s buying power silver has today.

Peak	Date	Nominal price	Real price (August 2026 dollars)	Spot ($61.36) as share of peak
Post-WWI high (yearly average, USGS)	1919	$1.12	$21.64	284%
Hunt brothers peak	Jan. 18, 1980	$49.45	$212.91	28.8%
Post-crisis peak	Apr. 28, 2011	$48.70	$72.53	84.6%
Nominal all-time high	Jan. 29, 2026	$121.67	$125.31	49.0%

The 1919 figure is a yearly USGS unit value, so treat it as a rough guide. The others are single-day prices.

Is Silver Still Below Its 1980 High?

Silver still trades far below its 1980 high. In August 2026 dollars, the 1980 peak is $212.91. Silver at $61.36 is $151.55 short. It would need to rise about 247% just to match its 1980 buying power.

The 1980 spike had unusual causes. By the end of 1979, the Hunt brothers and their partners https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>controlled about 195 million ounces of silver. When their buying collapsed, so did the price. On March 27, 1980, known as Silver Thursday, silver closed at $10.80 on COMEX.

Despite its impressive achievement, even silver’s record run in 2025 and 2026 fell short of the 1980 real price. Silver’s $121 high was the highest real price reached since 1980, but it still only reached 59% of that 1980 peak.

How Today's Price Compares With the 2011 Peak

The 2011 peak is a closer target. Silver’s $48.70 fix on April 28, 2011, equals $72.53 in August 2026 dollars.

Silver passed that level in December 2025, when its https://www.moneymetals.com/precious-metals-charts";>monthly average topped the real 2011 mark. It stayed above it through the January 2026 high. After a steep drop, silver at $61.36 now sits about $11 below the real 2011 peak.

That means that silver has done something new in terms of real price: it beat 2011, then fell back under it. The 2011 line of nearly $72.50 is the level to watch for buyers who track real prices.

Using Real Peaks as Price Targets

Some investors set buy or sell targets based on real peaks. If you do, keep in mind that the targets move. Each month that CPI rises, the real value of every past peak rises with it.

For example, the real 2011 peak was $70.17 in December 2025 dollars. By August 2026, it had grown to $72.53. A target you set a year ago may now be a few dollars too low. Recheck real targets each time BLS releases a new CPI figure, usually in the middle of each month.

Inflation-Adjusted Silver Prices by Year

The tables below show yearly average prices. Each real price uses that year’s average CPI-U. A single year is one row, so you can look up any year you need.

Silver Prices by Decade

Year	Average nominal price	Average real price (August 2026 dollars)	Source
1920	$1.02	$17.05	USGS unit value
1930	$0.38	$7.61	USGS unit value
1940	$0.35	$8.40	USGS unit value
1950	$0.74	$10.30	USGS unit value
1960	$0.91	$10.32	USGS unit value
1970	$1.77	$15.27	Market average
1980	$20.98	$85.28	Market average
1990	$4.83	$12.38	Market average
2000	$4.95	$9.63	Market average
2010	$20.19	$31.02	Market average
2020	$20.69	$26.78	Market average
2025	$40.11	$41.73	Market average

Rows marked “USGS unit value” are not market prices. They measure the cost of silver used in the U.S. each year. Use them for broad trends, not exact comparisons.

Answers for Common Years

1965: Silver cost about $1.29 per ounce, per USGS. That is about $13.72 in August 2026 dollars. It was the year the Coinage Act of 1965 began removing silver from dimes and quarters.
1985: Silver averaged $6.13. That equals about $19.09 today.
2000: Silver averaged $4.95. That equals about $9.63 today. The years around 2000 were silver’s cheapest in real terms since at least 1969.

Full Table: Silver Prices by Year, 1969 to 2025

Year	Average nominal price	Average real price (August 2026 dollars)	Real change from prior year
1969	$1.80	$16.44	n/a
1970	$1.77	$15.27	-7.1%
1971	$1.54	$12.74	-16.6%
1972	$1.68	$13.46	+5.6%
1973	$2.55	$19.24	+43.0%
1974	$4.67	$31.73	+64.9%
1975	$4.43	$27.57	-13.1%
1976	$4.35	$25.61	-7.1%
1977	$4.64	$25.65	+0.2%
1978	$5.42	$27.83	+8.5%
1979	$11.07	$51.10	+83.6%
1980	$20.98	$85.28	+66.9%
1981	$10.49	$38.65	-54.7%
1982	$7.92	$27.49	-28.9%
1983	$11.42	$38.41	+39.7%
1984	$8.15	$26.28	-31.6%
1985	$6.13	$19.09	-27.4%
1986	$5.47	$16.72	-12.4%
1987	$7.02	$20.70	+23.8%
1988	$6.53	$18.50	-10.6%
1989	$5.50	$14.86	-19.7%
1990	$4.83	$12.38	-16.7%
1991	$4.06	$9.99	-19.4%
1992	$3.95	$9.43	-5.6%
1993	$4.31	$9.99	+6.0%
1994	$5.29	$11.96	+19.6%
1995	$5.20	$11.43	-4.4%
1996	$5.20	$11.11	-2.8%
1997	$4.90	$10.23	-7.9%
1998	$5.54	$11.38	+11.3%
1999	$5.22	$10.50	-7.8%
2000	$4.95	$9.63	-8.3%
2001	$4.37	$8.27	-14.1%
2002	$4.60	$8.57	+3.6%
2003	$4.88	$8.89	+3.7%
2004	$6.66	$11.81	+32.9%
2005	$7.31	$12.54	+6.2%
2006	$11.55	$19.19	+53.1%
2007	$13.38	$21.62	+12.6%
2008	$14.99	$23.32	+7.9%
2009	$14.67	$22.91	-1.8%
2010	$20.19	$31.02	+35.4%
2011	$35.12	$52.30	+68.6%
2012	$31.15	$45.45	-13.1%
2013	$23.79	$34.21	-24.7%
2014	$19.07	$26.98	-21.1%
2015	$15.66	$22.13	-18.0%
2016	$17.17	$23.96	+8.3%
2017	$17.07	$23.33	-2.7%
2018	$15.71	$20.96	-10.2%
2019	$16.22	$21.25	+1.4%
2020	$20.69	$26.78	+26.0%
2021	$25.14	$31.08	+16.1%
2022	$21.76	$24.91	-19.9%
2023	$23.34	$25.66	+3.0%
2024	$28.46	$30.39	+18.4%
2025	$40.11	$41.73	+37.3%

Silver's Biggest Real Price Drops and Longest Recoveries

Silver can lose most of its real value and take decades to win it back. The table below measures each major fall in August 2026 dollars.

Peak	Low	Real decline	Years from peak to low	Real peak regained?
1919 ($21.64 real, yearly average)	1932 ($6.87 real)	-68%	13	Yes, in 1974 (per USGS real values)
Jan. 1980 ($212.91 real)	2001 ($7.70 real)	-96%	21	No, not after 46 years
Apr. 2011 ($72.53 real)	Dec. 2015 ($19.40 real)	-73%	4.7	Yes, in December 2025
Jan. 2026 ($125.31 real)	Sept. 28, 2026 ($61.36)	-51% so far	Ongoing	Not yet

The 2001 low uses that year's lowest price, $4.07, and 2001's average CPI. The 2015 low uses the $13.70 low from December 2015.

What These Drops Mean for a Buyer

Let’s imagine three different buyers as an example. One buyer paid the $48.70 fix in April 2011. In real terms, that buyer did not break even until December 2025, more than 14 years later. A buyer at the 1980 peak is still 71% behind in real terms, 46 years on. A buyer at the January 2026 high is about half underwater today.

Past drops do not predict future ones. But they show how long real losses can last when someone buys near a spike.

The Largest Declines

The fall from 1980 to 2001 is the biggest real drop in silver’s modern history. Silver lost 96% of its buying power over 21 years. If we look at this through nominal terms, the sharpest fall came in 1980 alone. That year, silver fell from the $49.45 fix in January to a $10.80 COMEX close on March 27. That represents a 78% decline.

This raises a question that concerns many silver investors. Many people invest in precious metals as a way to hedge their assets against inflation and preserve purchasing power. If silver can experience such dramatic declines in purchasing power, can it actually preserve your assets? We explore that question in our https://www.moneymetals.com/investment/investing-in-silver";>guide on silver investing.

Silver's Real Price in Deflation and High-Inflation Periods

Real prices behave differently when overall prices fall or rise fast. Here is what the numbers show in three periods.

The 1930s deflation. Consumer prices fell about 25% from 1929 to 1933. Silver fell faster. Its USGS unit value dropped 47% from 1929 to 1932. In real terms, silver lost about a third of its value, even though each dollar bought more. Silver then rebounded after the Silver Purchase Act of 1934. By 1935, its real price was more than double its 1932 level.

The 1970s inflation. Consumer prices rose 112% from 1970 to 1980. Silver’s average price rose more than elevenfold. In real terms, the 1980 yearly average was 5.6 times the 1970 average.

The 2021 to 2023 inflation. Consumer prices rose about 18% from 2020 to 2023. Silver’s yearly average rose 13%. So silver lost about 4% in real terms over that stretch. In 2022 alone, when CPI rose 8%, silver’s real average fell 20%.

Silver has beaten inflation in some periods and trailed behind it in others. The biggest factor in these cases is timing.

Silver vs Gold Adjusted for Inflation

Gold has already passed its 1980 real high. Silver has not yet made the same leap.

Gold’s January 1980 benchmark of $843 equals $3,629.67 in August 2026 dollars. Our gold price history shows gold did not top that real level until September 2025. At $4,139.84 on September 28, 2026, gold sits about 14% above its 1980 real peak.

Metal	1980 benchmark peak	Real 1980 peak (August 2026 dollars)	Spot, Sept. 28, 2026	Spot as share of real peak
Gold	$843.00	$3,629.67	$4,139.84	114%
Silver	$49.45	$212.91	$61.36	28.8%

Silver’s 1980 peak was more extreme than gold’s. The Hunt brothers’ attempt to corner the market pushed silver far above its usual range. That is one reason silver still trails its 1980 mark while gold has moved past it.

The gold-to-silver ratio tells the same story. On January 18, 1980, an ounce of gold cost about 17 ounces of silver ($843 ÷ $49.45). On September 28, 2026, it cost about 67 ounces ($4,139.84 ÷ $61.36). This math shows that gold’s real gains since 1980 have been significantly larger than silver’s.

How to Calculate the Inflation-Adjusted Silver Price

You can check any real silver price yourself. You need two CPI numbers and one simple formula.

Real price = old price x (CPI today ÷ CPI in the old month)

Here’s a breakdown of the 1980 peak, step by step:

Start with the old price: $49.45 on January 18, 1980.
Find CPI-U for January 1980: 77.8.
Find CPI-U for the "today" month. For August 2026, it is 334.980.
Divide: 334.980 ÷ 77.8 = 4.30566.
Multiply: $49.45 × 4.30566 = $212.91.

The same steps work for any date. For the April 28, 2011 fix of $48.70, April 2011 CPI-U was 224.906. So $48.70 × (334.980 ÷ 224.906) = $72.53.

Two tips help avoid common mistakes. First, use the CPI for the month of the price, not the yearly average. Second, name your "today" month. A real price without a base month can't be checked.

Both CPI figures come from the https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SA0";>Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U series. You can also run the numbers in the https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm";>BLS CPI Inflation Calculator.

Why Our Figure Differs From Macrotrends, InflationData, and APMEX

https://www.macrotrends.net/1470/historical-silver-prices-100-year-chart";>Macrotrends charts monthly closing prices adjusted with CPI. A monthly close misses a spike that rises and falls inside the month. So its 1980 peak reads lower than a single-day figure.
InflationData starts from a lower January 1980 price ($41.50) and uses December 2025 as “today.” It does not name its CPI series.
APMEX gives no method. Its $194.42 matches the 1980 yearly average CPI with an August 2025 index, as shown above.

Monthly CPI vs Other Inflation Measures

We use CPI-U because it is the official, public, and widely used U.S. price index. Anyone can check it. Other measures would produce different answers of varying degrees of difference.

A yearly average CPI, as noted above, lowers the real 1980 price. CPI methods have also changed over time. In January 1983, BLS changed how CPI-U measures housing costs for homeowners. It did so by switching to owners’ equivalent rent.

Some critics argue CPI understates the severity of inflation. If you use a faster-rising measure, the real 1980 peak climbs higher. We have opted to use CPI-U so that every number in the article can be checked in the same way against the same data sources.

What Would $200, $500, or $1,000 Silver Mean in Real Terms?

People often ask whether silver could hit $200, $500, or even $1,000. We don't forecast prices. But we can show what those prices would mean against the real 1980 peak of $212.91.

Price	Share of the real 1980 peak (August 2026 dollars)
$200	94%
$500	235%
$1,000	470%

So $200 silver would still fall just short of 1980 in real terms when measured in August 2026 dollars.

The target also keeps rising. Inflation lifts the real 1980 peak every year. If inflation were to rise at a 2% annual rate, the 1980 peak would reach roughly $230 by August 2030. At 3%, it would reach about $240. To set a new real record, silver has to beat a moving mark.

Methodology and Data Sources

This page follows the same method as our https://www.moneymetals.com/gold-price-history";>gold price history.

Deflator: CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted, from the https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUUR0000SA0";>Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Base month: August 2026, the latest month published. All real prices are in August 2026 dollars.
Record prices: Single-day records use the LBMA silver fix for 1980 and 2011. The 2026 high uses the $121.67 spot high from our https://www.moneymetals.com/price/silver-price-all-time-high";>all-time high page.
Yearly prices: 1969 to 2025 use the yearly averages in our https://www.moneymetals.com/silver-price-history";>silver price history. Years before 1969 use https://www.usgs.gov/media/files/silver-historical-statistics-data-series-140";>USGS Data Series 140. That series is a unit value of apparent consumption, not a market benchmark.
Missing data: BLS https://www.bls.gov/cpi/additional-resources/2025-federal-government-shutdown-impact-cpi.htm";>did not collect CPI data from October 1 to November 12, 2025. No October 2025 index appears in the series. Our 2025 average uses the 11 months that were published.
Updates: We restate real prices when BLS publishes a new CPI month. Yearly figures are finalized after each calendar year closes. We do not revise them afterward except to correct an outright error, and we note any correction.

Frequently Asked Questions

Silver’s inflation-adjusted all-time high is $212.91 per troy ounce in August 2026 dollars. It comes from the $49.45 LBMA fix on January 18, 1980, adjusted with CPI-U.

Yes, silver remains far below its January 1980 high. Silver traded at $61.36 on the morning of September 28, 2026, which is 28.8% of its real 1980 peak. Even if you use the $121.67 figure for the 2026 high, the record only reached 59% of that level in real terms.

Silver cost about $1.29 per ounce in 1965, per USGS. That equals about $13.72 in August 2026 dollars.

Silver averaged $4.95 per ounce in 2000. In August 2026 dollars, that is about $9.63.

In real terms, the biggest drop ran from January 1980 to 2001. Silver lost about 96% of its buying power, from $212.91 to about $7.70 in August 2026 dollars. The fastest nominal crash came in 1980, when silver fell 78% within the year.

No one can know. What we can say is that $200 would equal 94% of silver’s real 1980 peak, measured in August 2026 dollars. Because of inflation, the 1980 mark keeps rising each year.

The answer depends on timing. Silver beat inflation in the 1970s, but it trailed behind from 2020 to 2023. Anyone who bought at the 1980 peak is still behind in real terms. For more information, read our guide on how silver hedges against inflation.

Want to track silver against these real peaks? Check the live https://www.moneymetals.com/silver-price";>silver price, or explore https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver";>silver bullion when you're ready to buy.

Hunt Brothers Silver - 1980 Corner, Price Chart, and Silver Thursday Collapse - Manipulation Verdict, CFTC Ban, and 2021 and 2025 Squeezes - Money Metals

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

The Hunt brothers’ silver buying spree became one of the most dramatic episodes in precious metals history. In the late 1970s, Texas oil heirs Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt accumulated enormous positions in physical silver and futures, helping drive silver from under $10 an ounce to nearly $50 by January 1980.

Then the trade unraveled. Exchanges changed their trading rules, lenders pulled back, and silver eventually closed at $10.80 on March 27, 1980. The day became known as Silver Thursday. A federal jury later found the Hunts liable for manipulating the silver market.

Key takeaways

By January 1, 1980, the Hunts and their partners controlled about 195 million ounces of silver. About half of it was in futures contracts, not metal. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia, citing the SEC’s 1982 report)
Silver peaked at $49.45 on January 17, 1980. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silver-Thursday";>Britannica) It closed at $10.80 on March 27, a drop of about 78%. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia)
In 1988, a federal jury found three Hunt brothers liable in a case brought by Peru’s state mining company. Damages came to about $134 million. (https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/20/Hunts-guilty-in-silver-hoarding-case/2155588052800/";>UPI)
In 1989, regulators fined Bunker and Herbert Hunt and banned them from trading commodities. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silver-Thursday";>Britannica)
In October 2025, London’s silver price jumped $3 above New York’s. Money Metals noted that the last premium like it came during the Hunt squeeze. (https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2025/10/13/squeeze-in-progress-as-silver-prices-scale-record-highs-004406";>Money Metals)

Who Were the Hunt Brothers?

Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt were the sons of H.L. Hunt, one of the richest oilmen in America at the time. Nelson Bunker was the eldest brother, born in 1926, while William Herbert was born in 1929. They had a younger brother, Lamar, who went on to https://www.chiefs.com/team/ownership/lamarhuntsr";>found the Kansas City Chiefs. He was named in a later lawsuit alongside his brothers for manipulating the silver market.

This brings up a question: why silver?

The answer is that the brothers expected high inflation and saw silver as a hedge.

The answer had to do with the U.S. economic condition and geopolitical concerns. They expected that high inflation would continue and they saw silver as a hedge against it. At the time, it was illegal for Americans to own gold bullion. President Franklin Roosevelt’s https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-6102-forbidding-the-hoarding-gold-coin-gold-bullion-and-gold-certificates";>Executive Order 6102 remained in effect.

Their concern over coming inflation grew in 1973. The Hunt brothers owned oil fields in Libya, but the nation’s leader Muammar al-Qaddafi https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silver-Thursday";>seized control of these fields.

Some dealers today sympathize with the Hunt brothers and emphasize this part of their story. In their view, the Hunts were rational investors who feared a falling dollar. Those were not baseless fears given the state of inflation in the 70s.

However, the Hunt brothers built up such a strong position that many would argue they went beyond merely hedging and investing. Instead, they moved into speculation and hoarding.

How the Hunts Built Their Silver Position (1973 to 1979)

In late 1973, Bunker Hunt bought an estimated 20 million ounces. By early 1974, the family held about 50 million ounces.

The court documents show that the Hunts took out sizable loans to purchase this quantity of silver. Even their wealth would not be enough to purchase so much out of pocket.

With their physical silver holdings built, the Hunts moved into futures. A futures contract is a promise to buy or sell silver at a set price on a set date.

Most traders sell before the date. The Hunts often did the opposite. They took delivery of the metal.

This move pulled silver out of exchange warehouses and made it harder for short sellers to cover. Taking delivery further tightened the amount of silver available to the market.

How Much Silver Did the Hunt Brothers Own?

The SEC studied the crisis in a staff report released in October 1982. (https://www.sechistorical.org/collection/papers/1980/1982_1001_SECSilverCrisis_01.pdf";>SEC Staff Report: The Silver Crisis of 1980) Its figures cover the Hunts and the investors who traded with them.

Date	Hunt-related silver position	What it included
Late 1973	About 20 million oz	Bunker Hunt’s purchases
Early 1974	About 50 million oz	Family holdings
July 31, 1979	About 123 million oz	Physical silver plus futures
January 1, 1980	About 195 million oz	About half in futures, about half physical

Source: SEC Staff Report (1982), as summarized by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia.

Why the numbers you see online don’t match

You will find very different figures for the Hunts’ silver. Some sites say 195 million ounces. Others say about a third of the market. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silver-Thursday";>Britannica says about 70% of the world’s supply.

The gap comes from what gets counted. Some figures count only metal. Others add futures contracts, which are claims on metal. Some only count the brothers themselves, but others add their partners.

The fairest way to say it: the Hunts held a very large share of privately held silver stocks, with about half of their position in futures. They did not own most of the silver in the world. Much of the world’s silver sits in jewelry, silverware, and industry.

What Is a Silver Squeeze, and Why Does 1980 Keep Coming Up?

A silver squeeze happens when buyers want more silver than sellers can deliver right away. Buyers who need metal immediately will bid higher for it. Sellers who promised metal they no longer have must scramble to find more.

The result is that prices and premiums jump fast.

A recent example of a silver squeeze occurred in October 2025. In London, where major over-the-counter transactions occur in real time, the cost to borrow silver overnight rose to “well over 100 percent” a year. The gap between buying and https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2025/10/13/squeeze-in-progress-as-silver-prices-scale-record-highs-004406";>selling prices grew from about 3 cents to more than 20 cents an ounce.

News stories reached for a comparison, and they often landed on one famous example: the Hunt brothers. That is why so many headlines keep bringing up 1980.

The Hunt Brothers prompted the first major silver squeeze in modern history. However, there have been two other notable occurrences in 2021 and 2025. Each one ended in a similar way: as prices spiked, exchanges raised the cash amount that traders had to put up to hold futures. Those margin hikes helped end each run.

If you want to know whether silver is scarce today, see our guide: https://www.moneymetals.com/investment/is-there-a-silver-shortage";>Is there a silver shortage?

Hunt Brothers Silver Price Chart, 1979 to 1980

Silver traded below $10 an ounce before August 1979. It rose to $34.45 by December 31. Then it climbed past $49 in January. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia; https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silver-Thursday";>Britannica)

The fall was nearly as fast. Here are the key dates.

Date	Event	Silver price	Source
Before Aug. 1979	Rally begins	Under $10	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia
Sept. 1979	Prices climb	About $11	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Bunker_Hunt";>Wikipedia
Dec. 31, 1979	Year-end	$34.45	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia
Jan. 7, 1980	COMEX sets position limits	Rising	https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/693/58/2357549/";>Minpeco v. Hunt
Jan. 17, 1980	Record peak	$49.45	https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silver-Thursday";>Britannica
Jan. 21, 1980	COMEX allows “liquidation only” trading	Near peak	https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/693/58/2357549/";>Minpeco v. Hunt
Jan. 22, 1980	Spot price falls about $10	About $34	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia
Early March 1980	Choppy trading	$31 to $38.50	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia
Mar. 10, 1980	Slide resumes	$29.75	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia
Mar. 14, 1980	Fed asks banks to limit loans for commodity speculation	Falling	https://www.richmondfed.org/~/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/economic_review/1990/pdf/er760603.pdf";>Richmond Fed
Mar. 27, 1980	Silver Thursday close	$10.80	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia

From the January peak to Silver Thursday, silver lost about 78% of its value. From March 10 to March 27, it fell about 64% in 17 days.

One note on the peak. Bloomberg reports that the 1980 high was set on a Chicago Board of Trade contract that no longer exists. That is why sources list slightly different peak prices. For today’s price, see our https://www.moneymetals.com/silver-price";>live silver price chart. For the long view, see our https://www.moneymetals.com/silver-price-history";>silver price history.

How the Exchanges and Regulators Responded

The exchanges acted in steps.

Position limits (January 7, 1980). COMEX capped how many contracts one trader could hold. (https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/693/58/2357549/";>Minpeco v. Hunt)
Higher margins. Exchanges raised the cash traders had to post to hold silver futures. As prices rose, holding a big position got much more expensive.
Liquidation only (January 21, 1980). COMEX limited trading to orders that closed out positions. No one could open new long positions. (https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/693/58/2357549/";>Minpeco v. Hunt)

Silver fell by about $10 the next day.

Then, on March 14, 1980, the Federal Reserve launched a credit restraint program. It told banks to avoid “https://www.richmondfed.org/~/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/economic_review/1990/pdf/er760603.pdf";>lending for speculative purposes (e.g. speculative purchases of commodities or precious metals).”

The Hunts had funded their silver acquisition strategy by taking out loans to buy silver. The Federal Reserve’s credit restraint program made that money much harder to get.

“They Changed the Rules”: The Claim vs. the Record

Many silver fans believe the exchanges changed the rules mid-game to save short sellers. There is some truth in that. The rule changes did come while the Hunts were winning. But the record adds context.

The claim	What the record shows
“The exchanges shut the Hunts down.”	COMEX limited new buying on January 21, 1980. The Hunts could still hold or sell. (https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/693/58/2357549/";>Minpeco v. Hunt)
“It was just a big bet on inflation.”	A 1988 jury found Bunker and Herbert Hunt liable for manipulating the silver market. (https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/20/Hunts-guilty-in-silver-hoarding-case/2155588052800/";>UPI)
“Regulators were only protecting banks.”	The Fed did push to limit speculative loans, and banks later lent to the Hunts to stop the damage from spreading. (https://www.richmondfed.org/~/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/economic_review/1990/pdf/er760603.pdf";>Richmond Fed; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia)
“The Hunts owned most of the world’s silver.”	They held about 195 million ounces, about half in futures. That was a large share of private stocks, not most of the world’s silver. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia)

Both things can be true. The exchanges changed the rules. And a jury later found that the Hunts had broken the law.

Silver Thursday: March 27, 1980

In late March, 1980, silver was in freefall. The Hunts’ brokers wanted more cash to continue their operation.

The biggest exposure sat with a brokerage firm called Bache. Bache had carried large Hunt positions and had made loans backed by silver. At March 27 prices, the unsecured balance owned in Hunt accounts at Bache was about $122 million.

The Hunts were no longer in a position to meet the margin calls. That Thursday, silver closed at $10.80.

The drop was precipitous. From March 10 to March 27, silver fell from $29.75 to $10.80. That decline marked a 64% fall in just over two weeks.

This failure and fear affected many more people than just the Hunt brothers. If they failed, their brokers and banks could fail too.

To prevent that result, thirteen banks arranged a $1.1 billion loan to Placid Oil. This was a Hunt family-owned company. The Hunts then settled a large debt to the refiner group Engelhard by handing over oil and gas assets.

Was It Market Manipulation? What the Courts Decided

A federal jury found that the Hunts had in fact engaged in market manipulation.

Minpeco, a mining company owned by the government of Peru, lost money on silver trades in 1979 and 1980. The company sued the Hunts in New York. On August 20, 1988, the jury ruled for Minpeco.

UPI records the jury findings as follows:

Bunker and Herbert Hunt illegally manipulated the world silver market and broke racketeering laws.
All three brothers, including Lamar, broke fraud, commodities, and antitrust laws. Lamar was, however, cleared of the racketeering charge.
Mahmoud Fustouk, a Saudi businessman, and a Hunt-controlled company were also found liable.
Damages came to about $134 million after the law tripled them.

However, please note that this was a case of civil law, not criminal. Nobody went to prison for these actions.

Nevertheless, the fallout came quickly. By September 1988, Bunker and Herbert filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The lawsuits from their silver trading drove the filing.

In 1989, the brothers settled with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the federal futures regulator. They were fined and banned from trading commodities. Britannica reports the fine as $10 million each.

Some people familiar with this history remain sympathetic to the Hunt brothers and maintain that they were simply trying to hedge against disastrous inflation fears. That may well have been the motivation. Yet, upon examining the evidence, a jury found that the brothers had been attempting to corner the market. Following the verdict, regulators barred the brothers from the market.

What Happened to the Hunt Brothers?

Are the Hunt brothers still alive? No. Nelson Bunker Hunt died on October 21, 2014, at age 88. (https://www.cnbc.com/2014/10/22/famed-texas-oilman-nelson-bunker-hunt-dead-at-88.html";>CNBC) William Herbert Hunt died on April 9, 2024, at age 95. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herbert_Hunt";>Wikipedia) Lamar Hunt died in 2006. (https://www.chiefs.com/team/ownership/lamarhuntsr";>Chiefs.com)

How much silver do the Hunt brothers own today? None that is on public record. Their position was sold off or pledged to lenders after 1980. The 1989 CFTC ban kept them out of commodity trading. (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silver-Thursday";>Britannica)

Is the Hunt family still wealthy? Yes, in different ways. Bunker lost most of his fortune. Herbert rebuilt his through oil. Forbes put his net worth at about $5.3 billion in 2024. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Herbert_Hunt";>Wikipedia) Lamar’s family still owns the Kansas City Chiefs. (https://www.foxbusiness.com/sports/kansas-city-chiefs-hunt-family-silver-market";>Fox Business)

The 2021 #SilverSqueeze

In late January 2021, Reddit traders had just pushed up GameStop stock. Posts then called for a squeeze in silver.

Then, something interesting happened. On Sunday, January 31, silver futures jumped 8% when trading opened. The move was a major leap, one of the largest to occur since 2013. Twitter quickly saw the hashtag “#silversqueeze” trending.

On February 1, silver hit $30.03 in London. That marked its highest price since 2013.

Retail buyers followed suit by rushing to purchase coins and bars. Dealers struggled to keep up with the newfound demand. Premiums on highly traded products like the American Silver Eagle rose to accommodate the demand. Many dealers paused or delayed orders as available inventories dwindled.

The natural assumption at the time was that Reddit users had mobilized to make this squeeze occur. Interestingly, though, r/WallStreetBet users denied having caused the silver push. Some posts went so far as to say that hedge funds had co-opted what was meant to be their movement.

The squeeze came to an end when CME raised COMEX silver margins by 18%. That raised prices from $14,000 to $16,500 per contract, a change that went into effect on February 2, 2021. This move caused the rally to fade over the next few days.

While 2021 was certainly an eventful occurrence for silver, it did not really register as a silver squeeze. It was more of a retail buying wave that briefly drained retail supply.

The 2025 London Silver Squeeze and the 2026 Record

The 2025 squeeze was different. It started in the market where big banks trade silver bars: London.

In October 2025, the cost to borrow silver in London rose to over 100% a year. The London price rose $3 above New York futures. Money Metals noted that the last premium like it came during the Hunt squeeze.

Several forces met at once. Indian buyers bought heavily during festival season. The amount of “free float” silver in London fell from a high of 850 million ounces to about 200 million. Traders flew 15 million to 30 million ounces from New York to London to ease the shortage.

Silver set a then-all-time-high of $53.55 in London trading. That beat the January 1980 peak on the old Chicago Board of Trade contract.

The rally kept going. The U.S. government named silver a critical mineral in November 2025. By late December, silver was above $80. In early January 2026, COMEX traders began moving contracts to earlier months to get metal sooner. That is a sign of tight supply.

Silver reached a new record of about $121 on January 29, 2026. Then, much like it did in the past, CME raised silver margins. It did so on three occasions: January 30, February 2, and February 6. The last hike lifted margins from 15% to 18% of contract value. Prices fell hard in the days that followed.

For the full record, see our page on silver’s all-time high.

1980 vs. 2021 vs. 2025: Three Silver Squeezes Compared

	1980	2021	2025 to 2026
Who drove it	Hunt brothers and partners	Retail buyers, sparked by Reddit posts	Physical demand from India and investors; tight London supply
How it worked	Big futures positions plus taking delivery of metal	Rush into coins, bars, and silver funds	Borrowing costs spiked and London stocks ran low
Peak	$49.45 (Jan. 17, 1980)	About $30 (Feb. 1, 2021)	About $121 (Jan. 29, 2026)
How long	About 5 months up, 2 months down	A few days	About 4 months from October to the peak
What ended it	Position limits, margin hikes, liquidation-only rule, tighter bank credit	18% CME margin hike	Three CME margin hikes in one week
Outcome	Silver Thursday, jury verdict, bankruptcy, trading ban	Prices faded; dealer premiums eased	Record high, then a sharp pullback

Sources: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Silver-Thursday";>Britannica, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday";>Wikipedia, https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/silver-stocks-surge-1.5895790";>CBC News, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-01/cme-raises-comex-silver-futures-margins-by-18-effective-feb-2";>Bloomberg, https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2025/10/13/squeeze-in-progress-as-silver-prices-scale-record-highs-004406";>Money Metals, https://www.roic.ai/news/silver-soars-to-record-121-per-ounce-extending-historic-rally-01-29-2026";>Roic News, https://www.kitco.com/news/off-the-wire/2026-02-06/cme-group-hikes-gold-silver-margins-again-volatility-grips-markets";>Kitco.

The pattern is hard to miss. In each case, demand did not simply run out. The rules of the futures market changed. Higher margins made large leveraged bets more expensive to hold. The traders who had borrowed the most had to sell first.

The causes were different, though. 1980 was one family and its partners. 2021 was a crowd of small buyers. 2025 was a real shortage of bars in London after years of supply deficits.

What the Hunt Brothers Story Means for Silver Buyers Today

Leverage cuts both ways. The Hunts borrowed heavily and held futures. When margins rose and credit dried up, they were forced to sell. A buyer who owns fully paid physical silver never gets a margin call.

Squeezes show up in premiums. In 2021 and 2025, retail buyers felt the squeeze as higher premiums, wider spreads, and slower shipping. The spot price was only part of the story.

Paper and metal are not the same. Futures and many funds track the price of silver. They don’t put metal in your hands. Our guide on https://www.moneymetals.com/investment/silver-etf-vs-physical-silver";>silver ETFs vs. physical silver explains the trade-offs.

History doesn’t predict prices. No one can say when the next squeeze will come or how high prices will go. If you are new to the metal, start with our guide to https://www.moneymetals.com/investment/investing-in-silver";>investing in silver. When you are ready, you can https://www.moneymetals.com/buy/silver";>compare silver coins, rounds, and bars.

Hunt Brothers Silver FAQ

Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt bought huge amounts of physical silver and silver futures in the 1970s. By January 1980, they and their partners controlled about 195 million ounces. The price rose to $49.45 and then collapsed on March 27, 1980, known as Silver Thursday.

The SEC put the Hunt-related position at about 195 million ounces on January 1, 1980. About half of that was in futures contracts, not metal. Claims that they owned most of the world’s silver overstate it.

Silver Thursday was March 27, 1980. The Hunts could not meet margin calls, and silver closed at $10.80 an ounce. Banks later arranged a $1.1 billion loan to a Hunt company to keep the losses from spreading.

Silver peaked at $49.45 an ounce on January 17, 1980, according to Britannica. Some sources cite a figure above $50 from a Chicago Board of Trade contract that no longer exists.

Not in a criminal court. In 1988, a federal civil jury found them liable for manipulating the silver market. Damages were about $134 million. In 1989, regulators fined them and banned them from trading commodities.

No. Nelson Bunker Hunt died in 2014. William Herbert Hunt died in 2024. Their brother Lamar, who founded the Kansas City Chiefs, died in 2006.

Partly. Silver jumped to about $30 and dealers ran short of coins and bars. But many Reddit users said they weren’t behind it, and the rally faded after CME raised margins. It was a buying wave, not a true squeeze.

Silver saw a real squeeze in London in late 2025 and a record high in January 2026. For current conditions, see our https://www.moneymetals.com/silver-price";>live silver price and our analysis of https://www.moneymetals.com/investment/is-there-a-silver-shortage";>whether there is a silver shortage.

Hedge Funds Are Still Buying Treasuries, and That Could Become a Problem

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

The Treasury market is in meltdown, and the sector propping it up could ultimately deepen the crisis.

The 10-year Treasury yield surged to 5.33 percent overnight, the highest level since 2002. Gold Newsletter publisher Brien Lundin called it “https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/28/the-bond-bloodbath-spreads-005245";>a bond bloodbath.”

The problem is nobody wants to hold U.S. Treasuries. Foreign investors have grown wary of the United States' deteriorating fiscal situation as it piles more debt on top of the https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/08/20/the-40-trillion-national-debt-in-perspective-005151";>$40 trillion it already owes. Many are also concerned about https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/22/us-doubling-down-on-weaponization-of-the-dollar-005224";>the weaponization of the dollar.

This is driving https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/07/28/with-bonds-struggling-investors-turning-to-tangible-assets-like-gold-005096";>the debasement trade – an investment strategy that emphasizes holding tangible assets such as gold, silver, and other commodities to protect against the decline of fiat currencies caused by monetary debasement. We see this most clearly in central bank gold buying.

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Pension funds also seem to be losing interest in bonds due to structural changes in retirement planning, including, as CNBC reported, a shift from defined-benefit plans that promise a predetermined payout to defined-contribution plans whose value depends on investment returns.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is barely running enough https://youtu.be/ipaQAgOCJBk?si=gEVl-cxfqAr_mjIK"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">quantitative easing to maintain its balance sheet at the current level. That means it's only buying enough Treasuries to replace those that mature and roll off the balance sheet.

The Treasury Department has https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/24/treasury-announces-second-oversized-bond-buyback-as-it-tries-to-put-a-lid-on-yields-005234";>increased its bond buybacks in an effort to drive down long-term yields, but it has had no effect.

So, who is still buying Treasuries?

Hedge funds.

And that could pose a problem down the road.

Leverage Is a Risky Business

Hedge fund cash Treasury holdings reached $2 trillion at the end of 2025. That was nearly three times higher than just five years earlier. Marketable Treasury debt held by hedge funds, which is traded in the secondary market, stood at $28.9 trillion, a record 7 percent market share.

Even as other investors have shed Treasuries, hedge funds kept buying. According to Federal Reserve data, U.S. hedge funds purchased a net $60.6 billion in Treasuries in Q2, up from $26.4 billion in the first quarter.

So, that’s good news, right? Especially for a U.S. government that desperately needs somebody to keep loaning it money.

Not so fast.

As CNBC reported, “The shift is helping the government find buyers as its pile of debt grows, but it may also be making the world’s largest bond market more vulnerable, experts told CNBC.”

So, what’s the problem?

Hedge funds use a lot of leverage. In other words, they borrow money to make investments.

Union Bancaire Privée hedge fund specialist Ricky Siao called hedge funds’ use of leverage “aggressive” and warned that it magnifies “systemic risks.”

“When forced deleveraging happens due to extreme situations or crisis scenarios, it may result in broader liquidity and financial stability events.”

The Federal Reserve warned about the growing hedge fund participation in the Treasury market in its https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2026-may-financial-stability-report-leverage.htm"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">May financial stability report. It noted hedge fund leverage remained near record highs with leveraged positions “supporting significant positions in Treasurys and other markets.”

“High leverage can lead to spillovers if the fund suddenly loses access to funding.”

Earlier this year, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) warned that the increasing role of hedge funds as “core intermediaries” in the government bond market creates “new financial stability vulnerabilities.” It said that hedge fund reliance on debt and short-term repo financing could leave “core markets” more vulnerable to “sudden deleveraging and bouts of market dysfunction.”

In other words, it could ultimately lead to a broader financial crisis, similar to the way subprime real estate drove the 2008 collapse.

Hedge funds are fond of the cash-futures basis trade. This strategy involves buying cash Treasurys while selling corresponding futures. The fund earns a small return based on the price difference between the two markets.

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Agecroft Partners CEO Don Steinbrugge called this “the biggest risk,” noting that “these trades have thin margins and can often be levered 20 times, if not higher.”

“As we saw in March 2020, when Treasury market liquidity deteriorated sharply, leveraged funds can be forced to unwind positions quickly. This can create a vicious cycle of margin calls, forced selling, and further market volatility.”

Steinbrugge continued, “Hedge funds’ growing role in the Treasury market is both necessary for liquidity and a potential source of systemic risk.”

The bond market is becoming an increasingly big story. Rising yields are putting https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/18/higher-rates-are-bad-for-gold-and-silver-or-are-they-005215";>price pressure on gold and silver. However, investors may be missing part of the picture. As Treasuries tank, gold remains the last safe haven standing. People certainly won’t buy Treasuries if that particular market spirals into an even deeper crisis. It might be wise to hold precious metals to hedge against the growing potential for a broader market meltdown.

Dollar Weaponization Is Accelerating the Push Away From the Dollar

Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:00:00 EST

The U.S. dollar remains the world’s dominant reserve currency, but countries around the globe are looking for ways to reduce their exposure to it.

According to Money Metals Midweek Memo host Mike Maharrey, this gradual de-dollarization trend is being fueled not only by America’s fiscal problems, but also by Washington’s increasing willingness to use the dollar-based financial system as a weapon.

The warning signs are already visible in the bond market.

Last week, the 10-year Treasury yield surged to 5.23 percent, its highest level since 2007. Rising yields reflect falling bond prices and signal that investors are becoming increasingly reluctant to lend money to the U.S. government.

That is a serious problem for a country carrying roughly $40 trillion in debt, particularly when there is little political appetite for cutting borrowing or spending. The federal government is already paying more than $1 trillion annually in interest expense. Interest costs now exceed spending on national defense and Medicare. Only Social Security costs more.

The Treasury Department has even been https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/24/treasury-announces-second-oversized-bond-buyback-as-it-tries-to-put-a-lid-on-yields-005234";>buying back long-term bonds in an effort to support the market and push yields lower. But the effort has not meaningfully reversed the underlying pressure.

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A Close Ally Questions Dollar Dominance

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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently gave the world another reason to https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/29/canadian-prime-minister-reveals-the-motives-behind-de-dollarization-005247";>take the de-dollarization trend seriously.

Canada has traditionally been one of America’s closest allies and trading partners. Yet Carney has openly argued that the world should seek alternatives to the dollar, or at least reduce the dollar’s role as the dominant reserve currency.

In a speech before the European Parliament, Carney warned that “financial mechanisms are being used for coercive purposes.” He suggested that Canada and Europe should work more closely to develop payment systems that bypass those controlled by the United States.

In a New York Times interview, Carney went further. He said the world should move toward a “multi-polar system” using several reserve currencies rather than relying so heavily on the dollar.

This does not mean the dollar is about to vanish from international commerce. The dollar remains deeply embedded in global trade and finance, supported by the size, sophistication, liquidity, and depth of U.S. financial markets. As Maharrey put it, the dollar is still the “cleanest dirty shirt in the laundry.”

But the fact that the leader of the world’s 11th-largest economy is publicly discussing ways to minimize dollar dependence matters. It matters even more because Carney’s comments reflect a growing global consensus.

The Debt Black Hole

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One force behind the so-called debasement trade is America’s enormous debt burden.

The debasement trade refers to a strategy of holding tangible assets such as gold, silver, and other commodities to protect against the declining purchasing power of fiat currencies. Investors and governments are looking at escalating debt, persistent deficits, and monetary expansion and concluding that holding paper currencies carries greater risk.

Maharrey described the national debt using a phrase coined by analyst Greg Weldon, a “debt black hole.”

Like an https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/08/20/40-trillion-debt-black-hole-is-a-financial-crisis-coming-005149";>astrophysical black hole, the debt burden warps everything around it. It affects monetary policy, fiscal policy, bond markets, government spending, and the broader economy. The higher the debt climbs, the harder it becomes for policymakers to tolerate higher interest rates because every increase in yields makes borrowing more expensive.

The Globe and Mail recently observed that dollar preeminence rests in part on the perception that U.S. Treasuries remain the world’s safest asset. But that assumption is increasingly being questioned as federal debt surpasses $40 trillion and the United States continues to run massive budget deficits.

The world has long needed dollars and dollar-denominated assets. That demand has allowed the U.S. government to borrow and spend far more than would otherwise be possible. Global demand for dollars helps absorb Federal Reserve money creation and supports the dollar despite years of inflationary policy.

If foreign demand for dollars and Treasuries weakens, the United States faces a painful adjustment. Less demand means higher borrowing costs, greater downward pressure on the dollar, and more inflationary consequences at home.

Sanctions Create an Incentive to Escape the Dollar System

The second major driver of https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/26/nomi-prins-fed-rate-hike-doesnt-change-golds-long-term-outlook-005240";>de-dollarization is the weaponization of the dollar.

The United States can impose powerful financial pressure because so much global commerce is conducted through dollar-based networks. Washington can freeze assets under U.S. jurisdiction, restrict dealings with American companies, limit foreign banks’ access to U.S. accounts, and use secondary sanctions to punish firms that do business with sanctioned governments or entities.

This power became especially visible after Russia invaded Ukraine and the U.S. and its Western allies aggressively sanctioned Moscow. Russia was effectively locked out of major parts of the global financial system.

More recently, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly threatened to target Iranian commercial airlines as part of broader pressure on Iran. He warned that companies or countries supporting those airlines could be “knocked out of the dollar system.”

The message was blunt. Businesses that provide fuel, landing services, or tickets to Iranian airlines could risk losing access to the financial infrastructure that supports international trade.

The U.S. can also work with allies to cut sanctioned entities off from SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. SWIFT serves as a global financial messaging network facilitating cross-border payments. Because the dollar remains central to world commerce, cutting off access to these systems can be economically devastating.

Sanctions can be an effective foreign-policy tool. They give governments, banks, and companies a strong incentive to avoid doing business with targeted countries such as Iran or Russia.

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But they also create a powerful incentive for other countries to build alternatives.

If governments fear that their access to dollars, U.S. banks, or payment networks can be restricted in the future, they have a reason to diversify away before they become a target. They can reduce dollar reserves, sell Treasury securities, accumulate gold, develop alternative payment networks, and conduct more trade in other currencies.

That is the blowback from dollar weaponization.

Gold Buying Reflects the Global Shift

Central bank https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/03/central-banks-piled-in-more-gold-in-july-005182";>gold buying has surged in recent years, particularly after the aggressive sanctions on Russia. Countries have recognized that gold is not someone else’s liability. It cannot be frozen by a foreign government, blocked from a payment system, or printed into existence by a central bank.

At the same time, foreign holdings of U.S. Treasuries have declined. China’s Treasury holdings recently fell to their lowest level in decades.

Gold and silver are increasingly attractive in an environment where governments fear the political and financial risks of holding too many dollar assets. A country holding its reserves in gold is far less exposed to sanctions than one holding reserves in Treasuries or dollars parked in foreign banks.

Carney summarized the logic with a simple “fool me once, fool me twice” observation. Once countries see how financial mechanisms can be used coercively, they begin asking how they can diversify away from the system.

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That process does not require a sudden collapse in dollar dominance to create problems for the United States. Even modest de-dollarization can matter because America depends on robust global demand for dollars and Treasury debt.

If more unwanted dollars flow back into the U.S. economy, the result could be a dollar glut. That would further weaken the currency and push prices higher, reducing Americans’ purchasing power. In an extreme scenario, a sharp decline in global dollar demand could contribute to a currency crisis.

Roman Silver and the Durability of Real Money

Maharrey closed the episode by contrasting modern fiat money with a recent Roman silver discovery in Germany.

Amateur archaeologist Oliver Riedel https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/25/try-that-with-paper-money-2000-year-old-roman-coins-stand-the-test-of-time-005238";>found a trove of 934 Roman denarii in a field after his metal detector continued to signal that more coins were buried beneath the ground. Experts later determined that the coins dated to the reign of Emperor Hadrian.

The hoard weighed about 6.8 pounds, or roughly 99 troy ounces. Archaeologists estimated the denarii were approximately 80 percent silver, meaning the find contained more than 79.2 ounces of silver.

At a silver price of $65.47 per ounce, the melt value of the metal was approximately $5,185. The collection also represented a considerable fortune in Roman times. A Roman soldier earned around 300 denarii annually, with about half withheld for food and equipment. The hoard equaled roughly six years of take-home pay for an average soldier.

The https://youtube.com/shorts/vcRHTesv9wM?si=WsevE0QJArcnUCbB"; target="_blank" rel="noopener">lesson is durability.

A Roman denarius buried for nearly 2,000 years may have tarnished, but its silver content still has value. It can be exchanged for goods or currency because silver remains widely recognized as money and a store of value.

By contrast, paper dollars buried today would likely deteriorate over time. Even if the physical notes survived, their purchasing power would be uncertain. Maharrey noted that $5,000 buried 50 years ago would purchase only about $859.75 worth of goods and services today.

Gold and silver cannot be printed into oblivion. Governments can debase coinage by reducing metal purity, as Roman emperors eventually did when the denarius fell as low as 50 percent silver, but they cannot create precious metals with a keystroke.

As nations diversify away from the dollar system and concerns about debt, inflation, and sanctions grow, the enduring characteristics of gold and silver remain relevant. They do not mold, rust, or depend on the promises of any government.

Update: COMEX Silver Drawdown Partially Reversed Last Week

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 00:00:00 EST

I recently reported that over https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2026/09/21/7-million-ounces-of-silver-left-comex-vaults-last-week-with-a-spike-in-deliveries-005220";>7 million ounces of gold flowed out of COMEX vaults the week of Sept. 10-17.

Last week, silver flowed back into the COMEX system, partially reversing the drawdown.

During the week of Sept. 18-25, around 2.5 million ounces of silver entered COMEX vaults. With the additional metal, total inventory stood at 332.6 million ounces on Sept. 25, about 4.6 million ounces below the Sept. 10 level.

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Registered inventory (silver eligible for delivery) fell by 1 million ounces last week. However, eligible inventory (silver in the COMEX system but not available for delivery) grew by 3.5 million ounces.

In a nutshell, registered silver stocks declined, but total physical stocks increased. This signals category movement and net deposits, not escalating depletion of physical silver.

This takes the threat of an imminent silver squeeze off the table for the time being. While the outflow during the week of September 10th was unusually large, it looks more like a discreet withdrawal, not the beginning of persistent vault depletion.

However, given that total COMEX inventory remains 4.6 million ounces below levels reported earlier this month, you should continue to closely watch silver flows in and out of the COMEX system. With global silver supply tightness, a metal shortage could develop quickly.

Precious Metals News & Analysis - Gold News, Silver News from Money Metals Exchange

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Inflation-Adjusted Silver Price Chart (1913 to 2025)

Nominal vs Real Silver Prices

What Was the Highest Inflation-Adjusted Silver Price?

Why You See So Many Different Numbers for the 1980 High

Intraday Spike, Daily Fix, or Monthly Average: Which One Counts?

Silver's Record Highs in Today's Dollars

Is Silver Still Below Its 1980 High?

How Today's Price Compares With the 2011 Peak

Using Real Peaks as Price Targets

Inflation-Adjusted Silver Prices by Year

Silver Prices by Decade

Answers for Common Years

Full Table: Silver Prices by Year, 1969 to 2025

Silver's Biggest Real Price Drops and Longest Recoveries

What These Drops Mean for a Buyer

The Largest Declines

Silver's Real Price in Deflation and High-Inflation Periods

Silver vs Gold Adjusted for Inflation

How to Calculate the Inflation-Adjusted Silver Price

Why Our Figure Differs From Macrotrends, InflationData, and APMEX

Monthly CPI vs Other Inflation Measures

What Would $200, $500, or $1,000 Silver Mean in Real Terms?

Methodology and Data Sources

Frequently Asked Questions

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Hunt Brothers Silver - 1980 Corner, Price Chart, and Silver Thursday Collapse - Manipulation Verdict, CFTC Ban, and 2021 and 2025 Squeezes - Money Metals

Key takeaways

Who Were the Hunt Brothers?

How the Hunts Built Their Silver Position (1973 to 1979)

How Much Silver Did the Hunt Brothers Own?

Why the numbers you see online don’t match

What Is a Silver Squeeze, and Why Does 1980 Keep Coming Up?

Hunt Brothers Silver Price Chart, 1979 to 1980

How the Exchanges and Regulators Responded

“They Changed the Rules”: The Claim vs. the Record

Silver Thursday: March 27, 1980

Was It Market Manipulation? What the Courts Decided

What Happened to the Hunt Brothers?

The 2021 #SilverSqueeze

The 2025 London Silver Squeeze and the 2026 Record

1980 vs. 2021 vs. 2025: Three Silver Squeezes Compared

What the Hunt Brothers Story Means for Silver Buyers Today

Hunt Brothers Silver FAQ

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Hedge Funds Are Still Buying Treasuries, and That Could Become a Problem

Leverage Is a Risky Business

Dollar Weaponization Is Accelerating the Push Away From the Dollar

A Close Ally Questions Dollar Dominance

The Debt Black Hole

Sanctions Create an Incentive to Escape the Dollar System

Gold Buying Reflects the Global Shift

Roman Silver and the Durability of Real Money

Update: COMEX Silver Drawdown Partially Reversed Last Week