Silver Closes Week at Highest Price, Tops $21

U.S. silver prices surged for a second straight week, jumping ahead 58.3 cents from last Friday and topping $21 an ounce for a fresh 30-year high.

Aside from a dip on Tuesday, daily closing prices increased through to Friday.

Silver for December delivery ended at $21.399 an ounce on the Comex in New York, marking a weekly increase of 2.8 percent after an increase of 4.9 percent last week. The week’s intraday high was also on Friday, at $21.490 an ounce.

"As gold prices rallied so has silver as the "poor man’s gold" enjoys some attention from the speculative class. For those who choose not to buy gold as an alternative currency, silver has offered an inexpensive way to invest on that thesis, wrote Debbie Carlson of Kitco News. "Further, silver has benefited from its dual role as an industrial metal, rallying alongside copper and other base metals as ideas of an eventual global manufacturing recovery pick up."

Gold rose as well this week, but at a smaller 1.6 percent which resulted in a lower gold to silver ratio of 60.7. That compares to last Friday’s ratio when it took 61.4 ounces of silver to buy one ounce of gold.

The London silver Fix price settled at $21.350 an ounce, also the highest price since last Friday. Silver rose 50 cents, or 2.4 percent, for the week. The metal advanced 4.8 percent last week in London..

30-year high silver prices boosted sales of U.S. Mint bullion American Silver Eagle coins. Mint buyers ordered 830,000 this week after only 70,000 were scooped up last week. Silver Eagles are now at 1.22 million for September and 24,829,500 for the year.

Bullion weekly price charts for New York and London follow:

New York Futures Precious Metal Prices
	December Gold	December Silver	October Platinum	December Palladium
9/17/2010	1277.50	20.816	1621.90	545.70
9/24/2010	1298.10	21.399	1639.80	560.50

 

New York Futures Weekly Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver	X		2.8%	$0.583
Gold	X		1.6%	$20.60
Platinum	X		1.1%	$17.90
Palladium	X		2.7%	$14.80

 

London Fix Precious Metal Prices
	Gold		Silver	Platinum		Palladium
	AM	PM		AM	PM	AM	PM
9/17/2010	1281.50	1274.00	20.85	1619.00	1618.00	554.00	547.00
9/24/2010	1298.00	1297.00	21.35	1644.00	1645.00	558.00	562.00

 

London Weekly Bullion Changes
	Up	Down	% Change	Gain/Loss
Silver	X		2.4%	$0.50
Gold	X		1.8%	$23.00
Platinum	X		1.7%	$27.00
Palladium	X		2.7%	$15.00

 

For daily levels, check out the spot silver price page.