THE SILVER MILLIONAIRE by David Morgan July 2, 2007 Key Excerpt- "Obviously, one billion ounces divided by 715,000 ounces indicates that only 1400 silver millionaires could theoretically exist. ....If we have 2.6 million millionaires in terms of paper and it takes ten million in cash at today’s price ($13 per ounce) to become a silver millionaire, then all we need to do is cut our 2.6 million by a factor of 10. This would give us 260,000 with a ten million equivalent that have the paper necessary to purchase 715,000 ounces, -yet less than 1400 will be able to find sufficient silver to qualify as “silver millionaires.” Simply stated, there is almost 200 times as much paper available to purchase silver than silver available if we limit our analysis to the millionaire category only." .......Prices were higher when this was written but the facts speak for themselves. Silver isn't poor man's gold, its rich man's silver, but since silver is still looked upon as the poor cousin to gold it lags behind in price. Low price for silver is bad for silver producers but good for silver buyers. Once the price of gold takes off silver gets dragged up with it. Source: http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/morgan/2007/0702.html
Not many people quite grasp the concept that there are more gold ounces in the world than silver ounces. Silver production is higher, but it is consumed. Above ground gold is more plentiful, but most of it is locked away in the vaults of central banks. I guess one could make the case that an ASE should cost more than an AGE. Maybe someday it will.
Then all of us coin collectors would be rich... there is so much more silver out there than gold. Not complaining... that would be very nice
Not quite, recycling rate for silver is much higher than gold as well. Gold production is somewhere at 78 million ounces per annum globally versus 670 million ounces of silver. That's a huge 8x difference you are talking about.