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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;WingedLiberty, post: 1052434, member: 26030&quot;]The following four points taken from this web site (<a href="http://about.ag/debate.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://about.ag/debate.htm" rel="nofollow">http://about.ag/debate.htm)</a> were very interesting </p><p><br /></p><p>1. The best estimates are that there are roughly 6 billion ounces of gold&nbsp; that could be sold without mining (943 million ounces by our count in&nbsp; government stockpiles and ETFs), but perhaps only 2 or 3 billion ounces of&nbsp; silver that could be sold without mining (482 million ounces in&nbsp; government stockpiles and ETFs, by our count).&nbsp; So there may be less&nbsp; silver available for sale than gold!&nbsp;&nbsp; That would suggest silver prices&nbsp; roughly equal to gold prices based on rarity or availability.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. The biggest silver ETF (SLV) has a market cap of <a href="http://us.ishares.com/product_info/fund/overview/SLV.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://us.ishares.com/product_info/fund/overview/SLV.htm" rel="nofollow">$4.9 Billion</a> (as of 29 Jan 2010).&nbsp; As of 22 Nov 2009, total gold ETF holdings were <a href="http://www.commodityonline.com/futures-trading/technical/Combined-Gold-ETF-holdings-at-56.4-million-ounces-12931.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.commodityonline.com/futures-trading/technical/Combined-Gold-ETF-holdings-at-56.4-million-ounces-12931.html" rel="nofollow">56.4 million ounces</a>,&nbsp; worth about $64 Billion.&nbsp; That&#039;s 13 times as much money in silver as gold,&nbsp; suggesting that silver prices would go much higher if equal amounts were&nbsp; invested in gold and silver.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. In March, 2008 there was an unprecedented shortage of&nbsp; &#039;retail silver&#039; (physical silver in forms that all but the largest&nbsp; investors typically purchase). Most large bullion dealers were out of&nbsp; most or all of their silver (and their suppliers were out, too) for a&nbsp; few weeks.&nbsp; Again, in August, 2008, major shortages occurred.&nbsp; This&nbsp; could be attributed to the silver market being small, but if shortages&nbsp; of retail silver haven&#039;t occurred in the past, it&#039;s a sign that either&nbsp; [1] there is less silver available than before, or [2] investors are&nbsp; purchasing more silver than in the past, or [3] dealers were reducing&nbsp; their inventory (which doesn&#039;t make business sense).&nbsp; As one of these&nbsp; shortages began, The Tulving Co started selling 1000 ounce silver bars,&nbsp; suggesting that it was one of the few forms of silver that could be&nbsp; obtained (they are rarely sold in the retail market).</p><p><br /></p><p>4. There are nearly no government stockpiles of silver at present.&nbsp; The United States used to have about <a href="http://www.onlygold.com/articles/ayr_2007/A_Modern_Silver_Story.asp" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.onlygold.com/articles/ayr_2007/A_Modern_Silver_Story.asp" rel="nofollow">3 billion ounces</a>&nbsp; of silver, but has gotten rid of it all.&nbsp; If governments want silver at&nbsp; some point, it will significantly increase demand, and therefore the&nbsp; price of silver.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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