Silver Price History: Monthly Average in USD Since 1960 (World Bank Data)

Silver price history combines two distinct demand sources — monetary hedging and industrial consumption — which makes silver more volatile than gold and more cyclically sensitive than copper alone. This dataset provides the monthly average silver price in USD per troy ounce since 1960, sourced from the World Bank Commodity Markets Outlook (Pink Sheet). Over 65 years of silver price history allow comparison of monetary, industrial, and supply-driven regimes within a single continuous time series.

Dataset: Silver Price — Monthly Average, USD (1960–2026) · Updated 2026-06-01

Source: World Bank — Commodity Markets Outlook (Pink Sheet)

Macro Takeaway

Dataset Overview

Dataset Variables

The CSV and Excel files contain the following columns.

Column names match the CSV headers exactly.

Download the Complete Dataset

The full dataset is available in CSV and Excel formats.

Direct CSV Access — Eco3min Structured Dataset

https://eco3min.fr/dataset/silver-price.csv

This URL returns the complete dataset in CSV format. It can be used directly in pandas, R, curl, or any data tool.

Using the Dataset in Python

import pandas as pd

url = "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/silver-price.csv"
df = pd.read_csv(url, parse_dates=["date"])

print(df.head())
print(df.describe())

Using the Dataset in R

library(readr)

url <- "https://eco3min.fr/dataset/silver-price.csv"
df <- read_csv(url)

head(df)
summary(df)

Both examples load the dataset directly from the URL — no download or API key required.

Methodology

The monthly average silver price in USD per troy ounce is sourced from the World Bank Commodity Markets Outlook (CMO), a public dataset published monthly by the World Bank’s Development Economics Prospects Group. The series aggregates daily spot quotations from major precious metal exchanges (with London market quotations as the primary reference) into a calendar-month arithmetic mean, smoothing intraday volatility while preserving the underlying trend.

The data is in the public domain — no license restriction. Eco3min mirrors the CMO Pink Sheet release with first-of-month timestamps and consistent column naming. The series is well suited for long-horizon structural analysis but not for intraday or daily trading work, which requires LBMA daily fixings or futures market data.

Data Quality & Provider Notes

The World Bank Pink Sheet is the standard reference for long-horizon commodity series in academic and policy work. The monthly cadence makes it less suitable for short-term analysis but ideal for regime classification and structural cycle work.

• Release latency. The World Bank publishes the Pink Sheet on the second business day of each month, covering the previous month. Eco3min refreshes the dataset on a weekly pipeline cadence (Saturday 08:00 UTC).
• Revisions policy. Monthly averages are calculated post hoc and are not revised after publication. The historical series since 1960 is stable.
• Alternative sources. The LBMA publishes a daily London Silver Price benchmark from auction-based fixings. Bloomberg, Refinitiv (LSEG), and the Silver Institute publish alternative aggregates with similar long-term levels but daily granularity. COMEX SI futures (front-month contract on CME) provide the deepest liquidity reference for derivative-based analysis.
• Known gaps. No gaps in the monthly series since 1960. Pre-1960 data is available from secondary sources (Historical Statistics of the United States, USGS) but is not part of this series.

Users analyzing silver price history for structural research can rely on this series directly; users needing intraday or daily granularity should pair it with LBMA daily fixings or COMEX SI futures.

Common Pitfalls When Using This Silver Price Series

Silver price history is widely cited but four recurring interpretation errors distort the signal.

1. Confusing the data source. Users often conflate this World Bank Pink Sheet monthly series with the LBMA AM/PM daily fixings, with COMEX futures settlements, and with the SLV ETF NAV. Each measures something slightly different — the World Bank average smooths intraday volatility, LBMA prints two daily fixings (AM and PM, which can differ 0.5–2% during stress), futures embed contango/backwardation, and the ETF can trade at premium/discount during physical scarcity.
2. Monetary vs industrial demand drivers. A common mistake is interpreting every silver rally as a monetary hedge signal. In practice, over half of silver end-use demand is industrial (photovoltaics, electronics, brazing alloys). Cyclical industrial demand can drive prices independently of any monetary regime — and the energy transition has structurally shifted the demand mix since 2020.
3. Gold/silver ratio without regime context. The ratio is often quoted as a mean-reverting indicator, but its long-term mean has shifted: pre-1980 it averaged 30–40, post-1980 it averages 60–80, and post-2008 episodes have repeatedly produced readings above 100. Comparing a 2025 reading to a 1970s reading without regime adjustment misleads.
4. Spot vs futures vs ETF divergence during stress. During physical scarcity episodes (2008, March 2020, January–February 2021 retail squeeze), spot, futures, and the SLV ETF diverged by 2–5% as paper-physical arbitrage broke down. A monthly average masks these stress events visible only in daily granularity.

Historical Regimes

1960–1970 — Bretton Woods stability. Silver price stayed in a narrow $1.00–$2.00/oz range as the monetary order suppressed precious metal volatility. The US Treasury still held large silver inventories from the 1934 Silver Purchase Act, capping upside, and the demonetization of silver coinage in 1965 (Coinage Act) freed up structural supply.

1971–1980 — Monetary regime change. Nixon’s closure of the gold window in August 1971 and the subsequent inflation triggered the most violent silver price appreciation on record. Silver rose from $1.60 to $50/oz in January 1980 — a 30x move driven by Hunt brothers cornering attempts and fiat-debasement hedging. The peak coincided with US CPI inflation above 14% and the Volcker tightening cycle.

1981–2003 — Long disinflation bear market. Silver price collapsed from $50 to below $5 as Volcker’s monetary tightening, dollar strength, and industrial substitution (photography moving toward digital, lower silver content in alloys) crushed both monetary and industrial demand. The two-decade bear coincided with falling WTI crude oil prices and a strong dollar regime.

2004–2011 — Commodity supercycle. Silver price rallied from $5 to $48 alongside the broader commodity boom. The 2008 GFC interrupted the rally briefly, but QE1 and QE2 fueled a second leg that pushed silver to a near-double-top with the 1980 peak in April 2011. Industrial demand from emerging Asian economies amplified the monetary tailwind from balance-sheet expansion.

2012–2020 — Range-bound consolidation. After the 2011 peak, silver price spent eight years between $14 and $25. Dollar strength, weak commodity sentiment, and the absence of acute inflation kept silver capped despite expanding central bank balance sheets. The pandemic stimulus broke the range in mid-2020.

2021–present — Inflation and reshoring cycle. Post-COVID stimulus, supply chain disruption, and the energy transition (solar panel demand) lifted silver back toward $30. The cross-reference with WTI crude and the trade-weighted dollar helps distinguish whether silver moves are monetary (dollar weakness) or industrial (energy transition, manufacturing reshoring).

Related Macroeconomic Datasets

Silver sits at the intersection of monetary and industrial commodity cycles. Cross-referencing with the dollar index, oil, and copper helps isolate whether silver moves are driven by currency debasement, commodity inflation, or industrial demand. For how a different commodity class follows its own cycles, see our analysis of agricultural commodity cycles.

Macroeconomic Dataset Hub

This dataset is part of the Eco3min macro-financial data repository.

Explore the Eco3min Dataset Hub

Sources

• World Bank — Commodity Markets Outlook (Pink Sheet)
• LBMA — London Silver Price (alternative daily reference)
• Silver Institute — Annual World Silver Survey (demand-side breakdown)

Dataset Reference

Eco3min Research. (2026). Silver Price History — Monthly Average in USD (1960–2026), World Bank Pink Sheet.<br> https://eco3min.fr/en/silver-price-history-dataset/