What the ratio is
Price of gold ÷ price of silver — how many ounces of silver one ounce of gold buys. It's the oldest relative-value measure in metals, and stackers use it to decide which metal to accumulate: a high ratio means silver is historically cheap against gold; a low ratio the reverse. Ratio traders swap between the metals to grow ounces without predicting dollar prices at all.
The history, honestly summarized
For most of monetary history governments fixed the ratio: about 15:1 in classical bimetallic systems (the US Coinage Act of 1792 set 15:1; France's standard was 15.5:1), roughly tracking the metals' relative abundance from the ground. Once silver was demonetized in the late 19th century the ratio floated — and mostly rose: through the 20th century it swung in wide arcs, from the teens during the 1980 Hunt spike to readings above 100 at extremes (the 2020 panic printed the modern record near 125). The mean the ratio "reverts" to is itself unstable — which is the honest caveat attached to every ratio-trading strategy.
Why we don't show a chart yet
A proper ratio chart needs a licensed or self-collected price history. We began capturing our own spot observations into a provenance-tracked archive in August 2026 — the chart appears here as that history deepens, built from our own data rather than borrowed numbers. That's slower and better. (How our data works.)
Using it in practice
The ratio pairs naturally with physical decisions: at high ratios, accumulating silver — including 90% junk silver — buys more ounces per dollar; at low ratios, consolidating into gold compresses the same value into less storage. Premiums and dealer spreads eat into every swap, which is why the Deal Desk matters to ratio traders more than most.