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Message:: [QUOTE="Sundance79, post: 2986732, member: 84413"]In today's world the gold to silver ratio is meaningless and here's why.If you go back 2,000+ years the average has been about 16 to 1. But while you are at it there was a time (in Europe) when lead was as valuable as gold. For much of those 2,000+ years governments (kingdoms, empires, etc.) kept the status quo of silver to gold for trade purposes. However, as world governments have gotten out of the habit of using gold and silver for trade or need it to back their paper money, there has been no need to maintain the ratio. So now the value of gold and silver is just a reflection of what people will pay for it, and the general devaluation of paper money. And interesting exercise it to see how much gold or silver (in coin) it took to buy a number of different items in the 1920 vs. how much silver or gold it takes to buy those same items today. In most cases while the price has gone up, if you convert the current cost in silver or gold, the cost is the same. For instance you could buy a nice car for $500 in gold in 1927. That $500 in gold today would get you a $32,000 car. So in a sense the value of gold hasn't gone up, its just that our dollars are worth much less.[/QUOTE]