The metal’s worth surged in the early 1980s, around the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iranian Revolution. And in 2011, the United States’ credit rating downgrade caused another spike.
Grace’s grandfather saw the opportunity to give his grandkids their inheritance early, particularly as “he didn’t want the pressure any more.”
Walking into Wellington’s Gold Village last week, she was surrounded by many others selling silver necklaces, rings, and earrings.
The shop assistant was then pretty surprised when Grace slammed down a clean kilogram of the precious metal.
On the shop TV, the silver value sat at $4.53 per gram. But seeing as Grace had rare bullion silver, they offered her $4.65.
Walking away with $4650, Grace got herself a car, insurance, and had a bit left over for gas.
“I was surprised they gave me so much extra for it.”
All around the world, people like Grace are weighing up whether to sell their silver now while the market is up, or wait for an even bigger surge.
Cash Converters in Lower Hutt and Porirua has more than tripled what they will offer for silver in the past month, going from 50 cents a gram to $1.60, said a staff member.
They had seen more people like Grace cashing in their inheritance “with a bunch of silver”.
Most of this will be used as “scraps”, meaning it will get refined and turned back into useable metal.
Some jewellery stores are taking these scraps too, like The Refinery in Rotorua.
Owner Nicholas Cowley has seen a “big surge” in silver trades, offering about a third of the market value.
One customer, an old film processor, traded in 300g of silver from old photographic film.
Some bring in broken rings, sometimes coins, but Cowley has to be careful not to get “stung” by plates and cutlery.
“The older stuff, well, you think it’s silver but it’s not.”
The “ENPS” stamp on the back of a plate means it is only electro-plated nickel silver, but a “925″ or “Sterling” stamp means you have hit the jackpot.
Cowley recommended selling on Trade Me, or to New Zealand’s big three foundries: My Gold, Regal, or Morris and Watson.
“If you want the most money and the safest option, that’s where you got to go.”
As a jewellery maker, the cost of product has also gone up in Cowley’s shop, with some customers suffering “sticker shock”.
“It’s been so volatile recently … If the thing cost $300 last year it costs $600-$900 this year.”
Like most, he blamed world instability.
“When people feel like they can’t trust the US dollar, they buy gold and silver.”
Some smaller jewellers have resorted to calling out to customers for scraps, like Camille Paloma Walton in Kāpiti Coast who posted to her ten thousand followers last week.
“A customer sent in a couple bags of old silver recently and she made $3000,” she said.
Walton’s foundry credit her for the metal, taking a cut for the refinement process, and she passes that credit onto the customer for them to purchase one of her pieces.
Walton was debating increasing her prices by 10-20%, or taking some loss with the silver pieces, also known as the “bread and butter pieces”.
“I mean, the world crises don’t look like they’re stopping any time soon.”
She found the price surge “scary”, as silver is usually more obtainable jewellery.
“I would hate to have a lot of my stuff out of people’s reach.”
However, she appreciated how the surge had made people see how valuable owning jewellery really is.
“If you buy metal and you bide your time and sell it at the right time, you can always get your money back.”
Walton has been in the business for seven years, after losing a nanny job during Covid.
“It’s all very new, I haven’t had to tackle this in my little career,” she said.
Having a chunky and heavy design style, Walton may look at tweaking designs to use less metal.
But Walton isn’t panicking yet, feeling comforted by Kiwis’ support for New Zealand businesses, as well as international buyers who find her prices low.
Sammy Carter is a journalist for the New Zealand Herald covering news in the Wellington region. She has previously worked at the Rotorua Daily Post.