The emergence and existence of numerous silver pools, unallocated and certificated accounts, didn’t exist in 1980. While there have always been cases throughout history where fraud and deception have occurred, the widespread practice of selling unbacked silver certificates or accounts is a phenomenon that developed in 1980. There are still accounts like this run by institutions that could total up to 2 billion ounces. People believe they own this silver in a bank vault somewhere and don’t want to take possession of it due to the security risks and cumbersome nature of owning physical silver. While investment in silver was virtually non-existent for the 20 years after 1980, there were still plenty of investment in paper (fake) silver in pool, unallocated and certificate accounts which don’t publish serial numbers of the 1000 oz bars held. The buying of fake paper silver since 1980 diverted important money away from the real silver market and what would have been the beneficial impact on price. That trend may be ending now with the new SLV stock. The holders and investors in such accounts are starting to get the message about the dangers that such accounts hold for their financial well being. For their sake, I hope they get the message and act promptly and accordingly. When the people that bought into these fake certificates become wiser and poorer they will start to invest in the real silver. This will cause the price to go up too.