52056 - Pure Silver Australian Agate, Chrysoprase & Rhodonite Gemstone Pendants

The manufacturing process by which these pieces were made became very important around 1980, due to its efficient use of Silver, at a time when Silver prices went berserk.

From 1975 and up to 1978, Silver had been hovering between about $0.10 to $0.14 per gram and then quickly increased to about $0.20 pr gram by January 1979.

THEN; just ONE year later, January 1980, it had skyrocketed to about A$1.60 per gram…!!!

An INCREDIBLE 700% increase in just ONE year… AND… it was a man-made increase, or more correctly, three brothers manipulation of the Silver market which resulted in them having really and truly “cornered the market”.

But the Hunt brothers lost control over their “venture” and by mid-1980 the price had fallen to about A$0.30 per gram… and incredible rise, and fall, in one single year.

Tiffany got involved and placed an ad in The New York Times where it condemned the Hunt brothers for their actions, an action by which it was estimated that they had gotten control over about 35% of the entire world silver stock not held by governments.

It is a fascinating story and one which had a dramatic impact on the jewellery industry at that time.

And, it was one which unfortunately caused people to sell beautiful old handmade and hand engraved Silver household items like cutlery, candle holders, silver photo frames etc along with Silver chains and jewellery... which was all melted down.

Even though it is illegal to do destroy CURRENT money, Australian 50, 20 10 and 5 cent coins of certain dates which contained Silver worth more than the face value of the coin itself were melted down.

And “down” is also where the Hunt brothers went… right down to an eventual bankruptcy…