This is my theory, maybe wishful thinking. In gold, fractional coins demand nice premiums. As a single ounce of silver goes up it’s pricing the people who liked to add an ounce every paycheck out….or even people like me who can afford it but just want to spend $50 every now and then. I believe 90% silver is going to appeal to a much wider range of people now and therefore dealers are going to add a premium.
I get it. The more expensive it gets, small fry buyers get priced out, so they'll buy halves, quarters, and dimes. Thats not going to happen any time soon, silver will have to reach several hundred dollars an ounce first.
He got auto-corrected... "offered" should be "afford". It really depends on who we're talking about. Someone who can afford $50 every couple of weeks used to be able to buy an ounce or two at $25 an ounce, nice rounds. Now, that same person needs to save for a month to be able to be able to buy a single ounce round. It becomes a lot more attractive then to still be able to buy a few dimes instead. With silver at $95 an ounce, this has absolutely already happened to many people.
I have money that I can easily buy 100 ounce bars but I already own a bunch of silver and am not too big on buying at this price, but if I drive buy the coin shop I’ll stop in and drop $20–$30 on junk and not think twice about it….I know in the end it’s all the same but there’s psychology in the way people spend their money. I’ve been big on silver for a long time and now want to make any bigger purchases gold, I’m trying be 40:1 silver/gold.
“He got auto-corrected... "offered" should be "afford". Or I just suck at spelling, but I like your story more.
Lol. I have the privilege of being a science/engineering/physics professor. I always tell my students that I don't take points off for spelling... some of them test those limits. I have a many-page document of all the funniest misspellings. For some of the trickier words, I have a list of 12-15 different ways to spell the same term.
When I was in college, I took a zoology course. The professor deducted points for spelling. I probably don't need to tell you, scientific spellings are a chore in itself, much less learning the material. I got an A in the class, but the spelling drove me insane. Fast forward to 2026. Watch all these drug company commercials? They literally invent new names for drugs. The irony is thick.
Depending on where I taught, spelling might be important. I'm teaching at more of a trade school. Do I care if my students can spell Rankine, Rateau, or Mollier? No. I care a lot more that they can do this thing and operate this thing and understand why this thing does that thing, and explain how this widget works and how to fix it if it breaks.
Well, that's mostly all Latin based, and the names are made up to feed the ego of whoever "discovered" it!
I hear you. I took that class too. I was a biology major until I hit the harder chemistry classes. And for those reasons, I was out, transferred my major to accounting.
After inorganic chemistry in high school, I knew that I wanted none of that! I had a basic chemistry class in college, but it was far more focused on far more interesting things.
I regularly post no-photo "loss leader no-nonsense" (XF-MS condition) ads on a prominent site at ~60% of melt, as an Octogenarian, receiving buy orders from only one "return-purchase" individual. The large lot of pre-64 Silver or better-grade Gold coins are personally delivered, so there aren't any problems! I avoid E-bay, where I've regularly had problems! I believe current PM values may have eliminated the majority of frugal traders (i.e.: Fiat for PM, with guaranteed satisfaction for full-value return)! JMHO
I can't see that happening. I just think there's enough of a differential between gold at $4,700 and silver at $93 (assuming those prices hold) that there isn't enough demand for people who can't scrounge up $93. There's enough ways to play that with fractional silver coins...not sure any premiums will filter upward to junk. But...ya never know.
When a PM flatlines instead of spikes into a high and then collapses... the pricing is much different. If that's the case, then presumably the $70's and $80's might be support instead of the $30's and $40's. We'll just have to see where silver (and gold) spike into or peak and then baseline. Is it 20% lower....or 40% ?
