Understanding Gold & Silver – And How Many Ounces You Need
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This article contains general information only and is not intended to provide financial advice. All information is provided strictly for educational and entertainment purposes. Any actions you take based on the information in this article are solely at your own risk. The author accepts no responsibility for any losses, damages, or consequences that may result from decisions made based on this content. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult with a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Ready to ramp-up your knowledge on Gold & Silver... 'Matrix-style'? 😂
As the Gold and Silver rocket begins to REALLY take off 🚀 sharing this aims to be an easy, visual way for you to get almost anyone 👶 quickly up to speed... and excited.
This article's in 2 parts:
- ⬜️ Silver: Overview + how much do you need?
- 🟨 Gold: overview + how much do you need?
⬜️ SILVER: Overview + How Much Do You Need?
Silver is a fascinating metal – with both a strong industrial and monetary use case.
Not many know 1 US Dollar was originally defined in terms of SILVER ⬜️ by the Founding Fathers (exactly 24.057 grams).
Gold and Silver are in the 🇺🇸 US constitution. We simply need to follow the law to return to sound money.
Silver Overview:
Silver has been as important as Gold throughout human civilisation.
The two metals are linked via the Gold-to-Silver ratio – which defines how many ounces of Silver equal one ounce of Gold.
This ratio has historically been tight. But in modern times, something feels a little… off 🤡
Source: Make Gold Great on X
As of 2025 Gold is priced 91x HIGHER than silver per ounce.
This is a moment of historic absurdity.
Analysts put the actual Silver to Gold MINING ratio at between 7 to 10 silver ounces... for every 1 ounce of gold taken out of the ground 🤯
Current Silver prices do not reflect these fundamentals.
If that weren't bad enough...nearly all silver mined is used up 🕳️
Source: Make Gold Great on X
2025 is set to be Silver's 5th consecutive year of significant deficit.
Many countries (especially those with large industrial bases such as 🇨🇳 China and 🇮🇳 India) are importing FAR more silver than is available, and at record levels of intake:
Source: Make Gold Great on X
Why is Silver in such high demand? 🛍️
Because silver has the highest electrical conductivity of ALL metals ⚡️
This mean electricity flows through ⬜️ Silver with the least resistance.
Silver is essential in everything from 🔋 batteries, to ☀️ solar panels, to 🚗 cars and 🚀missiles... it's very likely present in the circuits of the phone or laptop you're using to read this very sentence 👀
And yet silver's price is far BELOW its 1980 high... set 50 years ago 🤡
Source: @MakeGoldGreat on X
The Paper Game: Silver’s Hidden Opportunity
Perhaps the reason for such a wide difference in the gold to silver is more to do with 'paper' (derivative) trading games, than basic supply and demand.
As can be seen (check USA Debt Clock for the latest) there are 378 derivative paper silver ounces for every real ounce:
Source: @MakeGoldGreat on X
As Hamlet said “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”.
Here's another view of this UNBELIEVABLE paper derivative mess:
Source: @MakeGoldGreat on X
At some point this paper derivative game will likely end when the physical becomes too short in supply to 'paper it over' 🧻 any longer.
At that point we will see what the 'real' price of silver actually is.
There are extremely interesting signs the 'end-game' is close.
Signs... such as the MONETARY 'use case' for Silver being revived once again by 🇷🇺 Russia:
Source: Make Gold Great
How Much Silver Should You Hold?
Reminder: of course how much silver to hold is entirely up to you and your unique situation. You should consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. None of this is financial advice, and the author bears no responsibility for any investment outcomes based on this information.
One interesting benchmark is looking at the all-time silver high back in the 1980's.
If silver prices return to their PEAK 1980 HIGH ... owning just 1,500 ounces could have bought you the average 🇺🇸 American home!
Source: Make Gold Great
With the average home in 1980 costing 🏡 $47,200 (unadjusted for inflation, according to the U.S. Census Bureau) and the 1980 price of silver ⬜️ reaching $49.95 (again, unadjusted for inflation) the actual number of silver ounces needed was in fact much less at 944 oz.
However to be conservative we'll look to Bullion Barron who, after an in-depth historical look at ⬜️ silver vs Australian 🏡 housing prices, found somewhere in the region of 1,000 to 1,500 ounces of silver ⬜️ for a house was the PEAK (the graphic above 👆uses the upper 1,500 of this range).
🚨 It's worth noting however peak silver in 1980 only lasted a few DAYS when the Hunt Brothers 'cornered' the market. The COMEX (the USA Silver market) changed 'the rules of the game' immediately – forcing traders into 'liquidation orders only' and dramatically increasing margin requirements. This resulted silver's price crashing 🔻
Could this time be different?
This time it looks like the silver market is being 'cornered' by international players such as 🇨🇳 China and 🇮🇳 India ... so it's not going to be as easy to crush Silver's price the way they did to the Hunt Brothers.
Source: Make Gold Great on X
Nevertheless, when deciding how many silver ounces you need, it would be wise 🦉 to picking a longer average – not just silver's brief January 1980 peak.
See below for Bullion Barron's ⬜️ silver ounces vs 🏡 Australian housing since 1979 to make up your own 🧠 mind:
Personally us folks at Make Gold Great expect silver's all-time-high to be reached an exceeded. Who knows... the next time there's a silver squeeze perhaps it stays 'up' there? Perhaps in 1980 the Hunt Brothers gave us a peak behind the curtain 👀 at reality.
How Much Silver Should You Own As A % Of Your portfolio?
A recent Silver Institute report explored the risk-adjusted returns on portfolios with different levels of ⬜️ silver exposure. Simulations were run by Oxford Economics over the 1999 to 2022 period.
They found a 4% to 6% allocation of silver to your portfolio (depending on the level of risk you want to take) is optimal for most investors.
Depending on your understanding of the market, risk tolerance and other personal factors you might decide to do more or less. Speak to your financial advisor.
Past performance is also not a guarantee of future results.
Us folks at Make Gold Great may hold a tad more than this as a % of our portfolio 😂
Where Do I Buy Silver?
Reminder: none of this is financial advice, do your own research. Do not rely on any information in this article. The author bears no responsibility for any investment decisions made based on this content.
IN YOUR OWN HANDS 👋
Your first option is simply to order the silver to your own home from a trusted dealer (most bullion services simply mail it to you 💌 as shocking as that can seem to millennials 😂 yes real value weighs something) and keep it in your own hands.
However this is not always practical or convenient for many.
ETFs 🧻
We would be cautious of investing in any ETFs (with the possible exception of PSLV – but we don't own any of that ourselves). Gold and Silver ETF's are usually derivatives of the underlying physical meaning you are opening yourself up to the risk that they won't have the underlying metal if there is a run on the ETF.
MINES ⛏️
Another option is to buy silver in the ground. You can pick up silver (IN the ground, so at higher risk) at just a few cents per ounce. The leverage is enormous here.
However the risks are significant with mines.
Accounts on X that deal with specific miners include @DonDurrett – @WVerily – @TheApeOfGoldST – @Silver__Santa – @TheLastDegree – @graddhybpc – and many more. There too many to name but hopefully that gives you a start.
Remember some of them are TRADE miners, some are more LONG TERM. It is extremely difficult to trade miners.
VAULTING SERVICES 🗝️
Another angle is vaulting services. Check out our bullion referrals page where we'll be collecting 🎁 offers from bullion dealers 🫡
Looking to the future 🔮 Gold-backed blockchains feel like inevitable final destination for the market to enable mass adoption.
As the legendary Peter Schiff ( @PeterSchiff) said:
Blockchain would bring more transparently to traditional vaulting. It allows 0% storage fees, and pays a yields for holding gold (funded from pooled community transition fees).
A yield for holding Gold is a game-changer. The winning model is almost certainly set to attract considerable capital.
Low fee micro-transactions made possible on a gold-backed blockchain could allow you to 'live' on your Silver and Gold completely. The ultimate way to finally, practically move off fiat 💸
Wrapping-Up And Waking-Up!
Governments around the world need to WAKE UP given silver's troubling supply/demand situation.
The implications of silver running out would be catastrophic for our military, environment, power and computing sectors.
If you agree, we have a silver strategic reserve cap you can wear to start the right kinds of conversations 💪 Spread the word.
Finally – as when you invest in a company – it's useful to look at who is buying. Here's a post from a 🐳 'whale' (@davidbateman) who bought heavily into silver in April 2025, along with his reasons for doing so:
If you're interested in traditional Silver vaulting with more transparency and utility via the blockchain (plus 0% storage fees & a gold yield) take advantage of this 0.5 ounce of free silver starting offer from Kinesis:
🟨 GOLD: Overview + How Much Do You Need?
Background to Gold:
Gold has captivated humanity for over 5,000 years as the ultimate symbol of wealth and power.
The ancient Egyptians called gold "the flesh of the gods," believing it to be divine and indestructible.
The classical gold standard (1873-1914) represented perhaps the most stable prices in modern history.
Read this thread from Make Gold Great on X for a step-by-step punchy thread 🧵 on the rise and fall of the USD through each 'stage'
International trade flourished under a system where major currencies were defined by and redeemable in specific weights of gold ⚖️
This era saw unprecedented economic growth with minimal inflation. So much so that with average prices in 1914 nearly identical to those in 1873.
THIS WAS THE PERIOD AMERICA BECAME A GLOBAL 'EMPIRE' 💪
Which is why – contrary to the FED's 2% inflation goal, which mostly benefits 📈 stock and 🏡 home owners – some of the best economic thinkers of our time, such as Dr Judy Shelton (@judyshel on X) and Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff on X) think governments should not be creating ANY inflation at all.
Stable (even deflating prices) provides confidence for businesses and the average citizen to save money and grow.
A stable, predictable, safe unit of account 🟨
The gold standard was finally abandoned in 1971 when President Nixon 'temporarily' suspended dollar convertibility to gold .... which started the exponential phase of our current era of debt growth and fiat devaluation.
Modern-Day Gold Renaissance:
Today, central banks are acquiring gold at the fastest pace since 1967 🏃♂️
🇨🇳 China, 🇷🇺 Russia, 🇮🇳 India, and even 🇵🇱 Poland have dramatically increased their 🟨 gold reserves. In 2023 alone, central banks added over 1,000 tonnes of gold to their reserves — the second-highest annual total on record.
And as Goldman Sach's recently noted ACTUAL buying could be 10x MORE than reported:
Source: @MakeGoldGreat on X
As the world's major economies struggle under unsustainable debt and currency debasement – gold is quietly being positioned as the ⚓️ anchor for whatever monetary system emerges from the instability.
Source: @GlobalMktObserv from Metals Focus, Refinitiv GFMS, World Gold Council
It's not hard to understand why China is selling 🇺🇸 US Bonds and rotating to 🟨 Gold:
Source: @MakeGoldGreat on X
Gold is becoming a serious competitor to US Bonds and the US dollar.
And this 🟨 'Golden Age' is just getting started:
Source: @TaviCosta on X
But we are still astonishingly early, as can be seen by the amount of Gold allocation by investment advisors when managing the average investors wealth:
Source: @IGWTreport
In fact, investment in Gold and Gold-miners is at the 📉 LOWEST level vs other global assets this century:
Source: @TaviCosta
Despite Gold HANDILY beating the S&P in performance since 2000:
Source: @carbonfinancex on X
Or said another way 😂
Source: @MakeGoldGreat on X
GoldHub has come out with a great Gold VS everything calculator (currently Australian prices, with a USA specific one in the works I'm told). It's horrifying to see how your purchasing power is plummeting over time against Gold against: 🍺alcohol, 👕clothes, 🎓education, 🍗food, 🏥health, 🏡house prices, 💰spending, 🎾recreation, 🚗transport.
If all this wasn't incredible enough Gold also has a RIDICULOUS physical to paper derivative ratio like Silver:
Source: @MakeGoldGreat on X
When the 'derivative game' finally ends ... this level of paper to physical suppression is going to result in MAJOR fireworks 🎆
So, where do I buy Gold? And how much should I hold?
Reminder: As with all investment decisions, this is solely up to you—consult with a qualified financial advisor and conduct thorough research before making any purchases. The information provided here is educational only and not a recommendation to buy any specific product or allocation.
🚨 Please see the 'Where do I buy silver' section above 👆 on silver to avoid any repetition. In that section we discuss holding 👋 physical, 🧻 ETFs, ⛏️ Miners and 🗝️Vaulting Services. All largely applicable to Gold too.
On the question of how much to hold – it's important to bear in mind that Gold is increasingly becoming a threat to US bonds and cash:
Given that the traditional portfolio is made up of a significant % of cash and bonds – this should result in a SIGNIFICANT re-weighting for most portfolios in favour of Gold 🟨
As seen in the chart further up this article 👆most financial advisors only have a TINY amount allocated to Gold in the average investors portfolio. We feel this is about to drastically change as Gold replaces the US dollar.
J.P. Morgan said it best in a testimony before Congress in 1912:
"Gold is money. Everything else is credit."
The world is about to enter a 'debt & fiat reckoning' – and from the wreckage a 'Bretton Woods' type accord seems likely.
The most likely foundation of this new system will be Gold 🟨
Gold will act as it always has done – the great 'resetter'. It is '5,000 years undefeated' against fiat currencies after all.
To ensure your 🎟️ ticket to this new financial paradigm... you have to ask yourself if holding paper from a heavily indebted nation is safer than the world's oldest, most stable, tier 1 reserve 🟨
Consider picking yourself up a 'shiny yellow rock', a MAKE GOLD GREAT shirt 😉 and join the sound money revolution.
If you're interested in traditional Gold vaulting with more transparency and utility via the blockchain (plus 0% storage fees & a gold yield) take advantage of this 0.5 ounce of free silver starting offer from Kinesis:
Final Thoughts on Gold & Silver:
Both 🟨 Gold and ⬜️ Silver have unique properties and different risk-reward profiles.
Silver offers potentially higher percentage gains due to its industrial demand and current undervaluation, while Gold provides time-tested stability and global recognition as the ultimate monetary metal.
A best approach is likely to include both metals in your portfolio – silver for its growth potential and gold for foundational, generational wealth preservation.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This article contains general information only and is not intended to provide financial advice. All information is provided strictly for educational and entertainment purposes. Any actions you take based on the information in this article are solely at your own risk. The author accepts no responsibility for any losses, damages, or consequences that may result from decisions made based on this content. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always consult with a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
