# What caused the silver shortage of the late 70s? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179 "2005-05-23T22:30:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/1 "2005-05-23T22:30:53Z")
I seem to recall silver prices going through the roof in the late 70s. I assume that there was a shortage of some kind. What caused this? ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/2 "2005-05-23T22:34:45Z")
The Hunt brothers of Texas secretly tried to buy it all. but I think they ran out of cash before they achieved their goal. I lucked out and was able to unload all of my Franklin Mint commemorative medals, etc., for slightly more than I had paid for it when the price was around $6/ounce. I have no webby or other cites but I suspect someone will. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/3 "2005-05-23T22:34:54Z")
There was a definite effort on the part of a few individuals to corner the market in silver. They bought as much as they could raise the money for, and the price did go up about tenfold. [Link.](http://www.sharelynx.com/papers/BunkerHunt.php) It was a heady time–for a few brief weeks, an ordinary pre-1965 quarter of no numismatic value was worth about $20. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/4 "2005-05-23T22:36:04Z")
Told ya! ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/5 "2005-05-23T23:18:23Z")
> [@Ignatz](#): > > The Hunt brothers of Texas secretly tried to buy it all. but I think they ran out of cash before they achieved their goal. Were they also trying to buy up gold? I remember way back in '79 that gold topped $1000 per ounce. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/6 "2005-05-23T23:27:14Z")
My recollection is that the gold run-up was more a reaction to inflation and geopolitical “malaise.” ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2005, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/7 "2005-05-23T23:33:02Z")
Yes, it WAS the Hunt brothers…aided by a Saudi prince (who loaned them several billion dollars). I would like to know what is keeping the price of silver up-film photography (the major use for silver) is dying fast…so silver ought to be in surplus. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/8 "2005-05-24T01:13:50Z")
BTW, the silver collapse and the Hunt Brothers were loosely used as models in the movie “Trading Places.” In the movie (where the commodity was orange juice), as in real life, the brothers were unable to answer a margin call after the price plummetted. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/9 "2005-05-24T02:09:09Z")
A small “knock-on effect” of those bastards: many thousands of WWI War Medals (issued by the British and Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, etc. governments) were melted down for the silver content, destroying forever the memory of some poor bloody bugger who died in the mud of France, Flanders or Gallipoli. (Each of these medals were individually named and numbered to each soldier). I still see the brass 1914-15 Star and the 1918 Victory Medal (also in base metal) groups named to one man in collections or in stores, but missing the silver British War Medal. Sad. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/10 "2005-05-24T02:31:13Z")
> [@Rodd Hill](#): > > A small “knock-on effect” of those bastards: > > many thousands of WWI War Medals (issued by the British and Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, etc. governments) were melted down for the silver content, destroying forever the memory of some poor bloody bugger who died in the mud of France, Flanders or Gallipoli. (Each of these medals were individually named and numbered to each soldier). > > I still see the brass 1914-15 Star and the 1918 Victory Medal (also in base metal) groups named to one man in collections or in stores, but missing the silver British War Medal. Sad. Why sad? They were sold for their inflated silver value at that time. Obviously the families wnated or needed the money more than the memories. It was their choice. ---
**Author:** ![Rodd\_Hill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3ab097/32.png) [@Rodd\_Hill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodd_Hill)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/11 "2005-05-24T02:41:13Z")
Well, firstly; I think a man’s life is worth more than $70 (or whatever they would have got at the peak of the market for a BWM); and secondly, splitting up a named medal group in this fashion is destroying history. These medals were literally one-of-a-kind, named to an individual, and bearing his service number. Taking the one medal out of the group to melt it down, and just throwing the other two in a drawer somewhere (or even in the trash) is demonstrating a complete lack of respect–or even understanding–of what suffering, exertion, and pain that medal represented. It is destroying the entire context of the medal group for a lousy few bucks. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/12 "2005-05-24T05:06:15Z")
Hey, hey, “lousy bucks”?? I worked hard for that money. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/13 "2005-05-24T12:58:39Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > It was a heady time–for a few brief weeks, an ordinary pre-1965 quarter of no numismatic value was worth about $20. That doesn’t seem right to me. A quarter weighs about 5.7 grams, which is about 1/5 of an ounce. I don’t remember silver going for $100 an ounce. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/14 "2005-05-24T13:10:29Z")
I believe the “nickel for $20.00” anecdote, because people were speculating. At the time, it seemed like the price would keep rising. I have a few old silver dollars that I wish I had sold at the time. (Hey, I was a poor college student – I could have used the money.) Another fallout of the silver shortage was that photographic film soared in price. I was heavily into photography at the time and the price of bulk film just soared (and became briefly totally unavailable). I was very pleased when the Hunt Brothers took it in the financial shorts. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/15 "2005-05-24T13:21:15Z")
[QUOTE=Finagle] I believe the “nickel for $20.00” anecdote, because people were speculating. At the time, it seemed like the price would keep rising. I have a few old silver dollars that I wish I had sold at the time. (Hey, I was a poor college student – I could have used the money.) I guess we can believe what we want, but I’d like some one to be able to prove this urban legend. It seems very hard to believe that we’d have any nickels in circulation if someone could make a 40,000% profit, turning $0.05 into $20. I’m guessing that silver never reached $100 an ounce and that the amount of silver in a nickel is very, very small. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/16 "2005-05-24T14:00:11Z")
In early '79 I was going through a rough patch and I sold my childhood coin collection. A month later, the Hunt brothers started their run on the silver market. On the other hand, I wasn’t financially ruined in the aftermath, so I guess we were even. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/17 "2005-05-24T14:24:41Z")
The price of silver [peaked at $52.50 per troy ounce](http://www.bankintroductions.com/silver.html) in January 1980. Gold peaked at $850 per ounce at about this time, so the price of silver would have risen even without the Hunt Brothers. Inflation was raging out of control in most countries of the world at this time, and people were looking at precious metals as an inflation hedge. The Hunt Brothers attempt at a corner made things worse. Here is the [silver content](http://www.coinsite.com/content/faq/USpre1965.asp) of pre-1965 coins. I’m too lazy to convert grams to ounces. In general, the silver content of pre-1965 coins equals the face value when the price of silver is about $1.38 per ounce. Today silver is at five or six times that value. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/18 "2005-05-24T15:36:01Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > I’m guessing that silver never reached $100 an ounce and that the amount of silver in a nickel is very, very small. As in zero. Nickels are made of nickel and copper. I think you meant “quarter”. It appears there are 31.1 grams in a troy ounce. The current price of silver is $6.94. So the value of the silver content of pre-1965 coins, at today’s price, is: Dime, $0.50. Quarter, $1.26. Half-Dollar, $2.51. At peak 1980 prices, it was: Dime, $3.80. Quarter, $9.50. Half-Dollar, $18.99. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/19 "2005-05-24T16:37:44Z")
> [@Freddy the Pig](#): > > As in zero. Nickels are made of nickel and copper. I think you meant “quarter”. That might be true of current nickels, but not all. [1942-1945 nickels, 35% silver](http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~tjw/coins.html) [Also see](http://www.answers.com/topic/nickel-u-s-coin) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179/20 "2005-05-24T17:11:53Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > That doesn’t seem right to me. A quarter weighs about 5.7 grams, which is about 1/5 of an ounce. I don’t remember silver going for $100 an ounce. My mistake, but at $50/oz a quarter still would been close to $10 in value. My error was in miscalculating the value of a quarter to be around 10 times face value at today’s silver rate; it’s really only about five times face value. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-caused-the-silver-shortage-of-the-late-70s/305179.md?page=2)