sez in January 1980, the Hunt brothers held nearly $4.5 billion in silver. At $50/oz, that works out to roughly 9 million ounces. In the great scheme of things, it doesn't seem like a lot.
<< <i>warren buffet recently sold upwards of 130 million ounces of silver. that is just one holding group. one.
the stuff is as common as salt in my opinion. >>
I agree. so why was the Hunt Bros. plan such a big deal at the time? >>
They were heavily leveraged, and controlled a lot more silver than they had paid for. The plan collapes when the government changed the margin requirements on them, forcing them to dump. TD
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
Keep in mind that at the time the Federal gov't had about 1-2 billion ounces on hand left from the comstock days. Since industry uses more each year than is mined ,the Fed no longer has ANY and actually buys each year to produce Eagles. At the current pace of depletion it is expected that all the above ground stocks will be depleted in around 10 years. Read some of Ted Butlers info.
The COMEX has done such a good job of "controlling" the price it now costs more to mine than it sells for. Sure there is a lot of silver around, everyone owns it but most of it is just paper.
Comments
IIRC, the Hunt brothers worked either directly or indirectly with other investors (Saudis?) to corner the market.
And silver only got up to $50 at the height of their activities. It was much, much less when they started.
--Severian the Lame
that is just one holding group. one.
the stuff is as common as salt in my opinion.
<< <i>warren buffet recently sold upwards of 130 million ounces of silver.
that is just one holding group. one.
the stuff is as common as salt in my opinion. >>
I agree. so why was the Hunt Bros. plan such a big deal at the time?
<< <i>How about 90 million oz? >>
Oops. in my mind I typed 90 not 9.
<< <i>Link to the article?
IIRC, the Hunt brothers worked either directly or indirectly with other investors (Saudis?) to corner the market.
And silver only got up to $50 at the height of their activities. It was much, much less when they started. >>
The article states that at $50/oz it was worth $4.5 billion
<< <i>
<< <i>warren buffet recently sold upwards of 130 million ounces of silver.
that is just one holding group. one.
the stuff is as common as salt in my opinion. >>
I agree. so why was the Hunt Bros. plan such a big deal at the time? >>
They were heavily leveraged, and controlled a lot more silver than they had paid for.
The plan collapes when the government changed the margin requirements on them, forcing them to dump.
TD
The COMEX has done such a good job of "controlling" the price it now costs more to mine than it sells for. Sure there is a lot of silver around, everyone owns it but most of it is just paper.