Why has the price of silver jewelry gone up in the past year?… glad you asked. Some of our customers question why does our silver jewelry prices flucuate. Our response is: for the same reason the price you pay at the gas pump flucates from day to day. First and foremost, silver is a commodity just like oil, gold, gas, coal etc. When the prices of these commodities surge like they have in the last year, the price of raw silver will go right along with them.
Sterling silver jewelry is comprised of 92.5% silver (thus the .925 stamp on all true sterling pieces) and 7.5% copper. The copper makes the silver more durable.
As you can see from the top chart, raw silver prices went from $12/oz a year ago to over $20/oz within the last year. Just in the last month have they had a steep drop from $18/oz to under $14/oz. In the last 5 years (bottom) silver has gone from $4.78/oz to a high of $20.79/oz or an increase of almost 500%.
Silver jewelry designers (Morgan & Company included) do not make any more money by increasing the prices of our silver jewelry. We are only recouping the increased costs of the raw silver which accounts for 75% of the cost to produce.
the Monogram Mafia blog 