Price
At an August 1, 2012 price of about $27.50 USD per troy ounce, silver is about 1/58th the price of gold. The ratio has varied from 1/15 to 1/100 in the past 100 years. Physical silver bullion prices are higher than the paper prices, with premiums increasing when demand is high and local shortages occur.
In 1980, the silver price rose to a peak for modern times of US$49.45 per troy ounce (ozt) due to market manipulation of Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt. Inflation-adjusted to 2011, this is approximately US$150 per troy ounce. Some time after Silver Thursday, the price was back to $10/ozt. From 2001 to 2010, the price moved from $4.37 to $20.19 (average London US$/oz). According to the Silver Institute, silver's recent gains have greatly stemmed from a rise in investor interest and an increase in fabrication demand. In late April 2011, silver reached an all-time high of $49.76/ozt.
In earlier times, silver has commanded much higher prices. In the early 15th century, the price of silver is estimated to have surpassed $1,200 per ounce, based on 2011 dollars. The discovery of massive silver deposits in the New World during the succeeding centuries has been stated as a cause for its price to have diminished greatly.
The price of silver is important in Judaic law. The lowest fiscal amount a Jewish court, or Beth Din, can convene to adjudicate a case over is a shova pruta (value of a Babylonian pruta coin). This is fixed at .025 grams (0.00088 oz) of pure, unrefined silver, at market price. In a Jewish tradition, still continuing today, on the first birthday of a first-born son, the parents pay the price of five pure-silver coins to a Kohen (priest). Today, the Israel mint fixes the coins at 117 grams (4.1 oz) of silver. The Kohen will often give those silver coins back as a gift for the child to inherit.
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