Global silver reserves amounted to a total of 610,000 metric tons in 2023 while The World Gold Council estimates that all the gold ever mined, and that is accounted for, totalled 190,040 metric tons in 2019. If you compare prices per gram then gold is expensive than silver. People would love to hold gold instead of silver because gold is rare and many big companies hold gold with them.
note I rounded numbers below
so gold is 2400 and silver is 30 an 80 to 1 ratio in value
and silver is 600 tons to 200 tons a 3 to 1 ratio in weight.
so the question is why is gold over priced or why is silver underpriced.
logically silver should be ⅓ the price or 800 not 30 or 1/80 the price.
back in the day say 1978 silver got close to 50 and gold was around 500
this was the tightest margin ever silver about 1/10 the price of gold. not the current 1/80
gold works better for electronics than silver
gold would make the best car batteries ever they would last for 50 to 100 years.
so is the real reason gold is pricey is it is a better industrial metal?
You have a point Phil.
However the biggest reason for the price of gold over silver is availability. Gold is less abundant than silver.
Also Gold has a more expensive and complex extraction process.
Another advantage gold has is that it has a more expensive appearance than silver.
Gold overall has a higher demand than silver making people see it as a better store for value thus making it's price increase.
On the contrary silver is a better electronic component because of it's high conductivity and low price compared to gold.
Infact in the electrochemical series of elements , silver is the best conductor.