Silver holds near £41 an ounce as the gold-silver ratio nears 75 on Fed decision day

Silver was trading at around £41 a troy ounce on Tuesday, or roughly £1.31 a gram before dealer costs. That is our approximate conversion of the $53.82 quoted by USAGOLD, which also showed gold near $4,027, about £3,057. The gap between the two metals has pushed the gold-silver ratio, the number of silver ounces needed to buy one ounce of gold, to about 74.8.

A ratio this high means silver is cheap relative to gold by recent standards. It sat in the high 60s earlier this month. Some buyers watch it as a rough guide to which metal looks better value, though it says nothing about where either price goes next.

Attention now turns to the Federal Reserve, which announces its decision today at 2pm New York time, 7pm in the UK. USAGOLD reports that policymakers have signalled no move this week, and futures markets price only a small chance of a rise now, but a much higher chance in December. Silver tends to react more sharply than gold to rate expectations because it also depends on industrial demand. Gold dropped below $4,000 last week for the first time since mid-July, according to the same report.

For UK buyers, most silver bullion carries 20 per cent VAT, while investment gold does not. That makes silver's all-in cost, spot plus premium, VAT and delivery, worth comparing carefully between dealers. This is market information, not financial advice.