I worked at Handy and Harmon in the early 1970's when I was in college. We used .999 fine silver wire to make brazing products. I handled hundreds of thousands of ounces of the stuff. Silver was around $5 per ounce then. Two years ago silver was $5 per ounce. Silver and gold have always been horrible investments except for a few rare occasions like now. Fortunately I have some silver strikes and other silver that I got thru metal detecting over the years. Glad I kept it.