10 Gold / Silver Ratios

The ratio gold and silver it is the number of Kilogrammes of silver which one can buy with one kilogramme of gold.

This ratio has varied greatly through history :

• 90 Was the ratio of silver to gold when the price of an ounce of silver was at a low in 1991. With one kilogram of gold one could buy 90 kilograms of silver.
  
• 51Was the average ratio of the price of gold to silver in 2007.
  
• 17 Was the gold / silver ratio at the time of the record gold and silver prices in 1980.
  
• 15 Was the official ratio of gold to silver during the great period of Bi metallism, 15 ½ for France (1803), 15.68 for the USA (1800), 14,29 for England (1806).
  
• 12 Was the gold/silver ratio in Antiquity in Rome.
  
• 12.5 Was the ratio in Greece at the time of the death of  Alexander the Great in 323 BC.

The ratio of production and reserves of gold and silver:

• 13 Is the ratio of world production from 1493 to 1931. For this 400 year period 13 times more silver than gold was produced.
  
• 8 Was the ratio of silver to gold production in the world in 2006. What is being said is that eight times more silver than gold was produced in 2006.
  
• 7.64 It the ratio of all production of gold and silver during one century (1900-2003). In the 103 year period, there was 7.64 times more silver than gold produced in the world.
  
• 6.4 Was the ratio of the ground reserves of silver to gold in 2000.

- It is astonishing to see that we produce 8 times more silver than gold, that the reserves are 6 times larger, but that the price of the silver is 50 times lower.

- Over the period of the history one kilo of gold was exchanged between 10 and 90 kilograms of silver, today it is exchanged at 51.

- During the raw materials bear market, silver suffered much more than gold. Silver has already caught up with part of the lag in its price, but there still is a way to go.

• The price of an ounce of silver will continue to increase more quickly than that of gold. For example, if the gold price rises 100%, the price of silver can increase between 100 and 600% depending on the evolution of the ratio.
  
• With gold at 2000 dollars, the price of an ounce of silver may be between 40 and 100 dollars. As more time passes it is more probable that the ratio will go lower, be patient.

Dr Thomas Chaize

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Dr Thomas Chaize currently preparing a book on gold and silver in 2008.