Whether you stumbled across silver in a financial rabbit hole or you've been stacking for years and want to go deeper, this is your on-ramp. Follow the path in order, or jump to what you need.
Before worrying about prices or premiums, know what you're dealing with — and why it matters.
Silver sits at the intersection of constrained supply, accelerating industrial demand, and 4,000 years of monetary history. Here's an honest assessment of the bull case — and the risks.
Silver is simultaneously the world's most industrially useful metal and one of its oldest monetary instruments. Understanding both roles is the starting point for everything else.
Silver's price is set by a complex interplay of futures markets, a benchmark most investors have never heard of, and a physical market where you almost never pay spot. Here's the plumbing.
Before coins, before banks, before anyone had a word for 'currency,' silver was money. This is the story of how one metal shaped civilization's relationship with value — from Mesopotamian temples to modern mints.
Silver isn't just money — it's a critical industrial material. These pieces explain why demand is structural, not speculative.
Article · January 15, 2026 · 8 min read
Solar gets all the attention. But silver runs through virtually every semiconductor ever made — and the AI boom, advanced chip packaging, and the MLCC explosion are creating a structural demand story that deserves serious attention.
Article · January 8, 2026 · 9 min read
Every solar panel contains silver. As the world installs more renewable energy capacity, silver demand from this sector is growing fast. Here's what the data actually shows — and where the bull case has limits.
Article · January 22, 2026 · 8 min read
Most Western silver analysis focuses on COMEX and the LBMA. But China is the world's largest silver consumer and runs its own parallel market in yuan. Here's what that means — and why it matters.
Once you have the conceptual foundation, these shorter pieces fill in the practical gaps.
Short · November 12, 2025 · 4 min read
The gold/silver ratio has swung from 15:1 to 125:1 in modern times. Here's what it measures, what history suggests, and what its limits are as a trading tool.
Short · November 24, 2025 · 4 min read
Government coins, private rounds, different finenesses, wildly different premiums — here's how to think through the choice for your first (or next) silver purchase.
Short · December 3, 2025 · 5 min read
A practical guide to silver storage: at home, at a bank, at a vault. Covers safes, insurance, tarnish, and the one rule everyone breaks.
Numbers are abstract. Use our purchasing power tool to see what silver could actually buy across 230 years of American history.
You now have enough grounding to explore the Topics hub, where everything is filterable by tag. Want to go deep on history? On the futures market? On mining stocks? It's all there.
Every factual claim on this site is mapped to a source. You'll find a numbered Sources section at the bottom of every article. If a URL can't be independently verified, it's cited by author and title only, and flagged. If a claim is contested or speculative, the text says so.
This is not financial advice. It is an attempt at honest, rigorous writing about a metal that attracts strong opinions. See our disclaimer.