Before the giant banks took over the economy and messed up everyone perception of value silver had a very consistent value from Ancient Roman times. The way I was told is that the average pay for a Roman worker was 1 tenth of an ounce per day. Im sure your pay each day could buy multiple ounces.

Back in the early days of England the pound was based on silver. 1 £ was 1 lb of silver, and a penny was silver, so imagine a piece of silver the size of a penny, and they would clip it into smaller pieces half penny and even a quarter penny. No one would really care about a half penny sized clipping of silver today, but all throughout history that had real value that you could buy something with, something handmade to last, in a rough living time, through multiple civilizations.

The value thats intrinsic and always has been to these metals doesnt disappear just because the DS has convinced a few generations of men it has, not when you can track the value through thousands of years. To me if you dont consistently buy silver if you have disposable income, you are a fool. Throughout thousands of years of civilization its never been this easy for a common man to acquire, but thats just how I look at it.