Even if valued lower than gold, silver, or poor man’s gold, has played a big part in human society.  Not only is it a precious metal, it also has its industrial applications.  Silver was part of the photographic industry and was also essential to the film industry.  The term “silver screen” held true for the screens of old as the projector screens had silver on them.  As a precious metal, silver had an important part in daily currency.  In fact, silver is one of the metals used in the older versions of coined money.

As for investments, silver future contracts are traded in the COMEX in New York and London Metals Exchange.  The contracts are bought and sold based on the projected silver price per ounce on future periods.  No real silver is traded at the COMEX, just the future contracts.  If you are an investor, you will most likely trade at the COMEX in New York.  As a guide for future contract prices, you can try looking up information on the internet on the current market price of silver.  There are websites on the internet dedicated to silver futures that one can use, complete with charts to guide the potential investor.

Now, we all know that silver always been valued as a precious metal. It has been used as jewelry, ornaments, utensils and currency coins. People who lived before written history had been fascinated by it and had used it extensively.

There was a time when silver was as valuable as gold. People’s wages were paid in valuable silver. As a matter of fact, silver was the most common monetary metal used in the world up to the 1800s. It means governments trusted the value of silver to use it as their monetary metal.

The value of silver has gone down since then. Gold has overtaken silver in value by several miles. But in the ‘80s, silver price has experienced resurgence in value. The value of silver at that has peaked at $150 per ounce.

Although there is evidence that silver is as scarce as gold, it is the least expensive compared to other precious metals. Being a precious metal, no matter how devalued it has become, several countries produce large quantities of it. Mexico, Peru, the United States, Australia and Chile are considered the largest silver-producing countries in the world today.

The current silver price per ounce is around $18. The price has been hovering around that area. The price movement hasn’t been that radical for the past few days. The current silver price per ounce is closely being monitored by silver traders. There are those who believe that silver will be really valuable again, that it will take its rightful place of value in the near future. Others, however, believe that by looking at the current silver price per ounce and the price trend, one can honestly say that silver price is not going to overtake gold price any time soon.

Silver is usually compared to gold as its price is usually determined by tracking the price of gold. In 1792, the United States set the ratio of gold to silver as 1:15 or one troy ounce of gold for 15 ounces of silver. In the 20^th century, this ratio has gone up to 1:47.

Silver price per ounce today may not be as valuable as it once was, but it has been on the rise since the start of the year. As mentioned, silver price is now at $18.45, up 71% from $10.79 at the beginning of 2009. It is still nowhere near the gold price, however, which closed at a record high of $1,141 on November 19, 2009.

Despite its big difference from gold, silver price per ounce is still expected to rise.  There is the increase in industrial demand as new items in the form of electrical appliances and medical equipment make use of silver. There are also applications for silver in the development of batteries, superconductors, and microcircuits.

Although the worldwide economic crisis has reduced the silver price per ounce today, industry experts still say that in the long-term, silver demand will increase, with the advent of lithium-ion batteries in electric cars. The increase may not be immediate as the technology of the digital camera has reduced demand for silver halide-based photographic film, but silver is still expected to play catch-up to the value of gold.