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In Roman and Greek Mythology, the First Age was called Golden, the Second
Age Silver. Apollo, the god of truth and light, and teacher of medicine,
carried a silver bow.
The hieroglyph of Isis (Egyptian moon goddess) is a crescent and
images of her are usually reproduced with her standing on the Crescent. This
has also become the symbol for silver – on old maps a crescent shows the
location of a silver mine.
Islamic alchemy gave silver an important place, alchemical procedures were
defined in terms of silver - the silvering of other metals, the act of giving
other metals silver like qualities.
We’ve long practiced the science (metallurgy) of separating silver from
lead - the earliest known workings of any significant size were those of the
pre-Hittites of Cappadocia in eastern Anatolia, the first sophisticated
processing of lead-silver ore was attributed to the Chaldeans around 2500
B.C.
Silver metal was recognized as more precious than gold when bartering in
ancient Egypt - this recorded as early as 930 BC. Silver’s use as money in
coin form began around 2600 years ago. The Lydian (present day Turkey)
Trite is considered by many experts to be one of the first coins used as
money. It was made of “Electrum”, a silver and gold mixture. Egyptian silver
in coin form began appearing around 300BC.
Silver and gold have stood the test of time, as a medium of exchange, a
storehouse of value and a safe haven in times of turmoil.
The history of fiat money has always been one of failure (most paper money
economies downfall can be linked directly to the costs of financing out
of control military growth and its wars). Every fiat currency since the
Romans started diluting the silver content of their denarius has ended in
devaluation and eventual collapse of both the currency and of that
particular economy.
For the very first time in our history, all money, all currencies, are now
fiat - the US dollar use to be gold backed and it was the rock all the worlds
currencies were anchored to - when the US dollar became fiat, all the worlds
currencies became fiat.
The Federal Reserve first issued its debt based paper money in 1913. Since
then the US dollar has lost over 95% of its value.
"The major monetary metal in history is silver, not gold."
Milton Friedman, Nobel Laureate
In this author’s opinion silver has a few unique twists. As a much cheaper
precious metal silver is winning market share from gold buyers. The higher
gold prices go the more consumers will step down to silver, more so if they
think silver’s price will rise substantially.
Today the gold:silver ratio stands at 74:41:1
Gold US$1,300.00 oz/silver US$17.47 oz = 74.41
Historically the ratio has been 15:1
Since silver made it’s nominal high in 1984 the gold:silver ratio has held
fairly steady at 45:1 - with the current ratio at 74.41:1 either gold will
have to fall or silver will have to rise to $28.88 in order to get the
numbers back in sync with 45:1.
To get back to the historical average ratio of 15:1 silver would have to
rise to $86.66 an oz.
Silver, like gold, also performs it’s function as a precious metal –
acting as a storehouse of value and a safe haven in times of turmoil -
although, and herein might lie the opportunity, silver seems to have been
asleep on the job what with the historical gold:silver ratio being so out of
whack.
Gold does seem to be performing admirably and in this authors opinion does
not seem set to significantly drop in price any time soon, the Dow on gold’s
terms:
• In 2000 gold made its $260 per ounce low
• January 2000 the Dow was 10,900
• 10,900 / $260 per ounce = 41.9 ounces to buy the Dow
• Today at 17,675.16 DJII and $1,300.00 gold it’s 13.59 oz to buy the Dow
 
Frik Els, Going gaga for gold,
silver ETFs
Central banks are loading up on gold as well. The World Gold Council
reported that central banks scooped up 45 net tonnes of gold during the first
quarter of 2016 with central-bank demand first quarter yoy climbing 28%.
Conclusion
In this authors opinion, it’s not if, but rather when, the gold:silver
ratio will revert to a more traditional number and share price upswings will
trickle down to the very few junior silver producers, the soon to be
producers, developers and explorers. It’s for these reasons that silver and
silver junior precious metal company’s should be on every investor’s radar
screen.
Is silver on your radar screen?
If not, maybe it should be.
***
Richard lives with his family on a 160 acre ranch in northern British
Columbia and is the owner of Aheadoftheherd.com.
Richard’s articles have been published on over 400 websites, including:
WallStreetJournal, USAToday, NationalPost, Lewrockwell, MontrealGazette,
VancouverSun, CBSnews, HuffingtonPost, Beforeitsnews, Londonthenews,
Wealthwire, CalgaryHerald, Forbes, Dallasnews, SGTreport, Vantagewire,
Indiatimes, Ninemsn, Ibtimes, Businessweek, HongKongHerald, Moneytalks,
SeekingAlpha, BusinessInsider, Investing.com, MSN.com and the Association of
Mining Analysts.
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***
Legal Notice / Disclaimer
This document is not and should not be construed as an offer to sell or
the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for any investment.
Richard Mills has based this document on information obtained from sources
he believes to be reliable but which has not been independently verified.
Richard Mills makes no guarantee, representation or warranty and accepts
no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or completeness.
Expressions of opinion are those of Richard Mills only and are subject to
change without notice. Richard Mills assumes no warranty, liability or
guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness of any
information provided within this Report and will not be held liable for the
consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained herein or any
omission.
Furthermore, I, Richard Mills, assume no liability for any direct or
indirect loss or damage or, in particular, for lost profit, which you may
incur as a result of the use and existence of the information provided within
this Report.
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