Why is lead more common than gold or silver?

Even though I am not a chemist, I will try to answer this based on my physics background. read more

So to narrow down and answer your question: Lead (Pb) tends to be more abundant than Gold (Au) because it has an even number of protons in its nucleus (82 versus 79) and its inner electron shells are filled (Basic Metal versus Transition Metal). read more

Silver is 17.5 times more abundant in the Earth's crust than gold. But the amount of above-ground gold available far exceeds that of silver. In 1950, there were 10 billion ounces of available silver above ground. read more

This explains why silver is more volatile than gold: it takes only a relatively small amount of money to have a greater impact on its price, more than gold or most any other asset class. As a result, silver will rise more than gold on up days, and fall more than gold on down days. Investors refer to these price changes as volatility. read more