Well I'm learning one thing being a newbe to 'Coin Talk'. Better know your stuff or you'll get ripped with humor and plenty of banter.
Hint #1 -- 200 years ago, the ratio (as established by Mint directives and relative coin weights) was around 16 to 1, or 16 ounces of silver were "worth" 1 ounce of gold. Hint #2 -- before the Internet, before the telegraph, there was virtually no way to rig and/or arbitrage markets on a global scale. Hint #3 -- in the past couple years, J. P. Morgan Chase has gone from being one of the largest silver shorts to one (and possibly the largest ever) of the largest silver longs but this is no guarantee silver's going up, in the near term. However, it does mean a massive change of strategy in the futures market.