The spot price of silver is the market price for an ounce of silver. The ounce in question is a troy ounce, which is roughly 11% heavier than a standard or avoirdupois ounce. Now, technically, the spot price is actually the price that commodities traders are paying or accepting for currently expiring silver futures contracts, but for everyone else, it’s the market price for an ounce.

Because grams are not equivalent to troy ounces or, for that matter, in the same system of measurement, it is necessary to do a unit conversion to arrive at the per-gram spot price. Since there are 31.1035 grams in a troy ounce, it is necessary to divide the current spot price by 31.1035 to find the spot price for your gram of silver.

JM Bullion Tools for Gram Pricing and Performance

The good news is that we have several tools to help you consider your investments in silver, regardless of the unit of measurement you use. Here’s a quick rundown on the different tools you can find on our silver price chart:

• ROI calculator – The ROI calculator tool allows you to see how well (or not) your investment in silver has performed. Be aware, though, you’ll need to go the other direction with the unit conversion in order to express your gram holdings in terms of troy ounces. A gram of silver is equivalent to 0.0321507, so you must multiply your number of grams by that decimal before you plug it into the ROI calculator.
• Silver valuation tool – The silver valuation tool is a bit more forgiving and customizable. Rather than making a statement about your gain or loss, it simply allows you to input all the particulars about your holdings and find out how much they are worth. In theory, you could run this tool twice – once with your buy price and once with the current spot price – but it can get a bit dicey if you’ve bought your silver at different times and paid different prices. In that case, you’re better off with the ROI calculator.
• The chart itself – Of course, our historical silver price chart is effective to monitor the general trends that the price of silver is undergoing at any given time. Furthermore, you can examine the closing price for each and every day of trading since January 1, 1995. By mirroring silver’s performance with other economic trends, like inflation, interest rates, and industrial demand, you can start to see some of the indicators that might lead you to a more informed investment decision.
• Fear and Greed Index – Precious metals investing is an emotional endeavor, and demand for them often rides the spectrum between fear and greed. We actually have graphed that spectrum on our Fear and Greed Index. Now, to be fair, the index reflects attitudes about gold, not silver, but since silver often moves in the same direction as gold, you can still get a good idea about the way the wind might be blowing.

Real-time Price Alerts

Most of us aren’t full-time precious metals traders. Keeping an eye on the movement of silver, especially given its volatility, is a challenging task.

Our real-time price alerts can help you stay on top of things. Sign up and designate the price points you’d like to buy and sell silver, and you’ll receive email and text notifications when the spot price meets one of those points.

Silver as an Investment

Buying silver by the gram is the least-expensive way to invest in precious metals – period. Because of this fact, there are a host of different people who might be interested in silver investing that would never enter the conversation about gold.

First things first – silver is a store of value that exists outside of world economies. It serves as a hedge asset that generally appreciates or depreciates in value in contrast to the movement of economies or investment classes that rely on a booming economy.

Buying silver appeals to those seeking diversification in their portfolios without the financial commitment associated with investing in other metals. Given the constant risk of inflation that afflicts fiat currencies, holding a tangible store of value is a prudent move.

Grams of silver are also a great way for beginning investors to get their feet wet. The investments are small enough that they won’t cause too much disarray in anyone’s finances yet provide the same benefits that larger precious metals investors experience. At worst, you own a small piece of silver that you can trade back in for less than $100 or, literally, keep forever.

Within that “keep forever” crowd is the third group of investors who might want to buy silver in grams. A gram bar or 10-gram bar of silver makes for a meaningful gift that can remain a minor heirloom for years to come. It’s no wonder that we don’t always have these smallest bars in stock.