Silver Price History
From the Hunt Brothers squeeze to the Reddit silver movement -- explore 50+ years of silver price data with decade-by-decade analysis and interactive charts.
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All-Time High
Silver Price Through the Decades
Silver's price history is among the most dramatic of any commodity, marked by speculative squeezes, industrial demand shifts, and extreme volatility. From the Hunt Brothers' legendary corner in 1980 to the Reddit-fueled squeeze of 2021, silver has repeatedly captured the world's attention with explosive price moves.
- 1980 - Hunt Brothers Peak – Nelson and William Hunt corner roughly half the world's deliverable silver supply, driving prices to ~$50/oz before exchanges impose liquidation-only rules.
- Silver Thursday (1980) – The Hunts fail to meet a $100 million margin call on March 27; silver collapses from $21.62 to $10.80 in a single session.
- 1991 - Bear Market Low – Silver bottoms near $3.50/oz after more than a decade of declining prices and waning investor interest.
- 2011 - Near-Record Rally – Silver surges tenfold from its 2008 low to $49.51/oz, driven by QE, a weak dollar, and Chinese industrial demand.
- 2020 - COVID Crash & Recovery – Silver crashes to $12/oz in March before rebounding sharply on stimulus-fueled safe-haven demand.
- 2021 - Reddit Squeeze – WallStreetBets retail investors target physical silver and SLV ETF, briefly pushing prices above $30/oz.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What was the highest silver price ever?
Silver's all-time high was approximately $50 per ounce, reached in January 1980 during the Hunt Brothers' attempt to corner the market. Silver came within pennies of that record again in April 2011, peaking at $49.51 per ounce during the post-financial-crisis commodity rally.
What happened with the Hunt Brothers and silver?
Nelson Bunker Hunt and William Herbert Hunt accumulated an estimated 100-200 million ounces of silver between 1973 and 1980, driving the price from around $6 to nearly $50. Exchanges imposed liquidation-only rules, and when the Hunts failed to meet margin calls on Silver Thursday (March 27, 1980), prices crashed. The brothers eventually went bankrupt.
How has silver performed versus gold historically?
Silver is significantly more volatile than gold. The gold-to-silver ratio has fluctuated between roughly 15:1 and over 120:1 historically, with a long-term average around 60:1. Silver tends to outperform gold in strong bull markets but falls harder during downturns due to its smaller market and dual industrial/monetary demand.
What caused silver's biggest price moves?
Silver's most dramatic moves were the Hunt Brothers squeeze (1979-1980), the post-financial-crisis rally to $49.51 (2011), the COVID crash and recovery (2020), and the Reddit/WallStreetBets squeeze attempt (2021). Each was driven by a mix of supply constraints, speculative demand, and macroeconomic uncertainty.