I've been wrong many times in my life and this is one of those times. I just did not think the spot price of commodity silver would continue to climb as it has. Aside from one unusual circumstance around 1980, silver has never been this high before. As I'm writing this, it's at $34.25 per Troy ounce, an increase of 108% over the price a year ago of $16.46.
This is all well and good for investors in commodity silver. However, it's having a tragic side effect on sterling flatware and hollowware. It's now often more profitable to sell used pieces to be melted down than to sell them for what they were intended. The result is that there will be a dearth of pieces out there in the market for some discontinued patterns.
What a shame.
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Monday, February 21, 2011
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2 comments:
I called my local jeweler and asked what she paid for scrap silver and she said she paid 0.55dwt, well I may have figured it wrong, but I came up with about $11 an ounce. She's not getting any of mine!
I agree with the previous comment. As of today, a reasonable price range would be in the $0.90 to $1.55 range per dwt, depending upon how many middlemen are involved.
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