These precious metals are dirt cheap – buy now
“Silver is both an industrial and a monetary metal”
Almost exactly 42 years ago to the day, an attempt to corner the silver market by the three Hunt brothers – Nelson, Lamar, and William – ended in disaster. The trio, the sons of Texas oil billionaire Haroldson Lafayette Hunt Junior, began buying in 1979, with the silver price sitting at just over $6 an ounce. By 18 January 1980, the price of silver had hit a record of just under $50 per ounce, and the Hunt brothers were thought to own around a third of the entire world supply of silver not held by governments. However, the Hunts had borrowed heavily to back their purchases – so when concerned regulators introduced limits on leverage, and the Federal Reserve discouraged banks from making such loans, the silver price began to fall, and the brothers soon faced a huge margin call that they couldn’t fund. By 27 March 1980 – “Silver Thursday” – the silver price had plunged all the way back to $11 per ounce, and the Hunts lost a fortune.
After that, silver took 30 years to regain the $50 level, which it finally achieved in 2011. Another decade on, and the
