Silver Price in the 1980s

The decade opened at the most extreme moment in silver's history. The Hunt brothers' squeeze peaked near $50 per ounce on January 18, 1980, and even after COMEX imposed liquidation-only rules and raised margins, 1980 still averaged $20.63. The unwind was brutal: the average halved to $10.52 in 1981 and fell to $7.95 in 1982 as the Volcker recession bit.

A 1983 rebound to an $11.44 average proved to be a dead-cat bounce. From there silver ground relentlessly lower: $8.14, $6.14, and a $5.47 decade-low average in 1986. The Black Monday year of 1987 brought a 28 percent bounce to $7.01, but the decade closed at $5.50 in 1989, roughly a quarter of where it began, as disinflation and drained speculative interest left the market without a bid.

Silver Thursday was March 27, 1980, the day the Hunt brothers failed to meet a massive margin call and the silver market broke. After exchanges imposed liquidation-only trading and hiked margin requirements, the price had already been falling fast; the missed margin call turned decline into panic, and silver collapsed from its $50 January peak to under $11 in just over two months. A consortium of banks arranged financing to unwind the Hunts' positions and contain the damage to the broader financial system.

The episode ended the most famous corner attempt in commodity market history and cast a four-decade shadow: the $50 level it created was not decisively broken until October 2025. The full record history is on the silver all-time high page, and the 1980 peak's value in today's dollars, roughly $195, is computed on the inflation-adjusted silver price page.