After which, you arbitrage your $5 silver coins for notes and buy silver back cheaper and pocket the difference. At this point, I see no reason why silver won't go back to it's historical levels of about $5 USD, just don't see it going below that since that is the arbitrage level. Historical charts indicate it only really spikes during times of global crisis, of which another is bound to come along sometime.
"Historical levels" meaning the level post-Hunt in the 80s? If we look pre-WW2, the "historical" price of silver was 80-cents (or so) per ounce. To say silver will drop back to 80s bottom prices shows a complete lack of understanding of economics. Silver dropped due to Fed announcement that interest rates will be allowed to rise and bond buying is done. In order to see $5 silver, we'd need to also see 8% federal funds rates.
Does anyone know some accurate numbers on mining costs per ounce? When silver was $40, I know the miners were able to dig a little deeper in areas where it wouldn't have been cost effective before. Now with prices below $20 I'm sure they are trying to rein in spending which should mean less product. The last mining numbers I heard were between $8.88 to $9.50 an ounce.
I had always been under the impression that a fair percentage of silver was mined as a byproduct of mining copper (and to a lesser extent, zinc, lead, gold, and tungsten).
