from ZeroHedge:

Silver is the matrix of precious metals:

• on the one hand, it is an industrial metal, critical to the production process in many of the world’s most in-demand products;
• and on the other hand, it has been ‘money’ for millennia, playing second-fiddle as a spending ‘asset’ relative to gold’s ‘wealth’.

The question is always, which of these demand/supply attributes is more prevalent at any one time.