Will Silver Ever Hit $100 Per Ounce? History Tells Us No. (2024)

Posted - July 9, 2024

Will Silver Ever Hit $100 Per Ounce?

For silver investors, seeing the spot price of silver hit $100 per troy ounce would be a dream come true. For decades, silver bulls have predicted that silver could one day be worth $100/oz or more. Some of these investors predict that silver will become the only viable medium of exchange after inflation wrecks all other national currencies.

Other experts say that silver’s price doesn’t accurately reflect its rarity and demand. Since silver is nineteen times more common than gold, some silver stackers say that an ounce of silver should be worth exactly one-sixteenth the value of gold.

Is there any truth behind these often-repeated claims, though?

Will silver ever hit $100 per ounce?Silver is unlikely to ever hit a price of $100 per ounce. Because of the metal’s abundance, competition from other precious metals, and the popularity of traditional investment assets, $100 silver isn’t something we’re going to see in our lifetimes.

As of August 2024, one ounce of silver is worth around $29. To reach $100/oz, silver would have to gain over three times its current value. Although silver could realistically be worth $50 in 2025 or 2026, silver is unlikely to hit $100 per ounce unless an extreme set of economic circ*mstances become reality.

If silver ever did hit $100 per ounce, investors would probably have a lot more to worry about than how they’ll afford their next American Silver Eagle Coin. Historical silver price trends make it clear that silver’s only viable path to a $100 price-tag would probably require one of two things:

1. Major collapses in the global financial system, or;
2. Severe market manipulation.

Either scenario is bad news for the average silver investor. On this page, you’ll learn about silver’s all-time highs, the conditions that drive high silver prices, and a final verdict on whether or not silver will hit $100 per ounce in 2024.

Lessons From History – Tracking Silver’s All-Time Highs

Silver has long been one of the most volatile markets – especially compared to other precious metals. Since the precious metal’s discovery in 3,000 BCE, silver prices have ranged from $.25 to a whopping $49.45 per ounce. 5,000+ years of silver trading gives us plenty of data to analyze, and historical silver price trends can give investors valuable insight into whether $100 silver is a realistic possibility.

Silver prices have varied widely over the course of the last fifty years:

Clearly, silver prices spiked considerably during two years: 1980 and 2011. These two silver all-time highs – and the reasons behind them – can help investors better understand why it isn’t very likely that silver will ever hit $100 per ounce.

Silver’s All-Time High in 1980

Silver hit an all-time high of $49.45 per troy ounce on January 18th, 1980. Adjusted for inflation, an ounce of silver in 1980 is worth approximately $188 in today’s money! Although this seems like it would be good news for investors, most silver collectors at the time weren’t very happy about the causes behind the highest silver price in human history.

Silver’s 1980 all-time high was the result of price manipulation by a wealthy trio of brothers from the Hunt family. The Hunts spent most of 1979 collecting as much silver as they could. By 1980, the Hunt brothers had amassed hundreds of millions of ounces in silver bullion and silver futures.

As a result of their attempt to corner the silver market, silver prices peaked at $49.45/oz, which was a 713% increase from January 1979!

Silver’s all-time high may have happened in 1980, but it certainly didn’t result from normal market movements. For silver investors wondering if the metal will ever hit $100 per ounce, it is important to remember that not even the Hunt brothers’ market manipulation was able to drive silver prices to $100/oz.

Why Did Silver Spike in 2011?

2011 was another big year for silver bulls. On April 29th of 2011, silver nearly repeated its 1980 high and peaked at $49.21 per troy ounce. While economists don’t agree on the precise reason why silver hit a record high in 2011, it almost certainly wasn’t market manipulation that sent silver prices to new heights.

Several economic and geopolitical conditions led to silver’s 2011 price run:

• Geopolitical Tensions.The outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, heightened U.S.-Russian tensions, and a host of other geopolitical concerns drove demand for silver to record heights in 2011. Investors turned to silver in 2011 because of the metal’s track-record as a safe haven asset.
• Industrial Demand.Industrial demand for silver spiked in 2011 with the rise of the solar energy sector. Because silver is a crucial component of solar energy technologies, the explosive growth of this industry in 2011 led to record-high demand for silver bullion.
• Economic Uncertainty.The 2011 debt ceiling crisis and concerns about a probable recession drove silver prices up in 2011. Investors were concerned about the solvency of the U.S. economy that year, so they responded by purchasing more silver bullion to safeguard their assets.

2011 was an uncertain, troubling time for the world economy. A wide range of geopolitical and economic stressors converged in 2011, increasing the appeal of silver as a safe haven asset. While it isn’t impossible for silver prices to reach their 2011 heights again, hitting $100 would probably require an even more catastrophic global economic climate.

What Conditions Drive High Silver Prices?

These historical silver highs can help us figure out whether or not the precious metal will ever actually hit $100 per ounce. To better understand the lessons we’ve learned from 100 years of silver price history, we’ll need to take a closer look at the conditions that tend to drive silver prices higher.

Silver, like all precious metals, is often used as a safe haven asset. Silver often thrives in uncertain or unstable economic and political climates. Outside of obvious examples of market manipulation, silver prices tend to correlate well with geopolitical uncertainty and economic insecurity. When the global economy becomes worrying to investors, they often protect their assets by investing in safe haven assets like silver coins and bars.

Three main factors lead to climates where high silver prices are likely:

1. Market Manipulation.
2. Geopolitical Uncertainty.
3. Inflation.

Below, we’ll cover how market manipulation, geopolitical uncertainty, and inflation lead to high silver prices.

Market Manipulation

Market manipulation can lead to record-high silver prices. We know this because italready happened.Silver’s highest price ever happened in 1980 and was a direct result of the attempts of the wealthy Hunt brothers to corner the silver market. When the Hunt brothers spent an entire year buying as much silver as they possibly could, they cut the national supply of available silver so low that prices quickly skyrocketed.

In the 21st century, large-scale manipulation of the silver market is nearly impossible. The Hunt brothers were able to (nearly) corner the silver market in 1980 because, at that time, silver was still in the process of becoming a popular investment globally. Today, industrial and investment demand for silver is higher than ever. Executing the same kind of market manipulation we saw in 1980 on the silver market today would require an incalculable amount of money.

In other words, market manipulation is not a viable path to bring silver to $100 per ounce. It’s unlikely that the world will ever see another silver price spike like we did in 1980, a similar attempt at market manipulation certainly wouldn’t bring silver to triple digits.

Geopolitical Uncertainty

Geopolitical uncertainty is an important factor behind some of silver’s biggest historical price runs. When relations between two (or more) countries deteriorate, investors often purchase precious metals to safeguard their assets against uncertainty. Economists refer to investments that fill this role as safe haven assets. Silver presents itself as an excellent investment during periods of conflict, uncertainty, or political instability.

Silver’s price spike in 2011 illustrates the vital role that geopolitical conditions play in determining the spot price of silver. The outbreak of the Syrian Civil War converged with tensions between the United States, Russia, and China to drive silver’s price within an inch of a new all-time high. It is important to remember, though, that even 2011 didn’t bring silver close to $100 per ounce.

Will geopolitical uncertainty push silver to $100 this year? We sure hope not. As much as us silver stackers would love for our portfolios to become more valuable, it would take an extremely troubling set of geopolitical conditions to push silver prices all the way up to $100 per ounce.

Inflation and Silver Prices

Like gold, silver is an attractive asset during periods of inflation. Silver performs well in inflationary climates because the metal has intrinsic value. When inflation rates increase, the purchasing power of a country’s paper currency decreases. Since silver always holds at leastsomeintrinsic value, its purchasing power might remain static as other currencies become less useful.

Silver consistently performs well when inflation rates are high. Even if silver isn’t the best safe haven asset, the fact that many investors consider it an inflation hedge helps boost demand for silver during highly inflationary economic periods.

Could high inflation drive silver prices up? Sure, and this happens all the time. Some silver investors use inflation rates to time their silver purchases, and high inflation generally bodes well for the value of silver. But will high inflation lead to $100 silver?The answer is: probably not. If inflation became bad enough that silver shot up to $100 per ounce, silver investors would have a lot more than their coins to worry about. Absent a serious hyper-inflation situation, don’t hold your breath for $100 silver anytime soon.

Could Silver Really Hit $100? | 2024 Silver Price Forecast

Some bullish investors have predicted that silver will hit $100 in 2024. Is $100 possible this year? Almost certainly not. On this page, we’ve covered two of the biggest price spikes in the history of the silver trade. In one of these cases (1980), an organized market manipulation scheme brought the metal to an all-time high of $49.45 per ounce. In the other example (2011), a combination of geopolitical and economic stressors drove record demand for silver because of its usefulness as a safe haven asset.

In either case, the price of silver didn’t get even half of the way to $100 per ounce. It is highly unlikely that any major geopolitical event or economic climate in the next five months will push silver anywhere near $100/oz. The types of global occurrences that would make silver as valuable as $100/oz would be so catastrophic that the metal would only be useful to dedicated survivalist stackers.

But how high could silver go in 2024?Silver likely won’t hit $100 an ounce this year, but that doesn’t mean that the metal doesn’t have fantastic potential. The global silver market still faces a record-high supply deficit, and demand from the solar energy sector has never been higher. Geopolitical tensions on nearly every continent, rising inflation rates around the globe, and several ongoing conflicts make this year fertile ground for a major silver breakout.

The precious metal is already up nearly 24% on the year – and it could very well go much higher before the start of 2025.

Hypotheticals: What Would Have to Happen For Silver to Reach $100 Per Ounce?

For silver to hit a record price of $100 per ounce, several things would probably need to happen.

To start, $100/oz silver prices would only really be possible within an extremely troubling global economic climate. Hyperinflation across multiple countries, the collapse of major stock markets, or massive supply-chain issues for silver could cause the metal to hit triple digits. Because this convergence of economic stressors is unlikely, silver probably won’t hit $100/oz this year – if it ever does.

Market manipulation could drive silver prices to $100 per ounce, but this is also unlikely to happen. The sheer size and diversity of the silver market would make it very difficult for a wealthy group of investors to corner the market in the same way the Hunt brothers did in 1980.

To summarize: $100/oz silver would likely only happen in a specific, extreme circ*mstances that are unlikely to converge in the near future.

Final Thoughts: Is $100/oz Silver a Realistic Possibility?

Silver bulls often claim that the precious metal might one day be worth as much as $100 per troy ounce. While we’d all love to see our portfolios become so valuable, the spot price of silver will most likely never hit $100. Historical silver price trends tell us that the metal’s highest prices happen either as a result of intentional market manipulation or a wide range of geopolitical and economic factors. Even when powerful investors corner the market or geopolitical conditions deteriorate, we haven’t seen silver get anywhere near $100 per ounce.

Silver won’t hit $100/oz this year, but the precious metal is still far outperforming expectations. To date, silver’s returns have outpaced gold’s, and the price of silver is up nearly 24% on the year.

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• What’s the Highest Silver Price Ever?
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