Silver Thursday was an event that occurred in the silver commodity markets on Thursday 27 March 1980. A steep fall in silver prices led to panic on commodity and futures exchanges.
The sharp drop, on Silver Thursday, was triggered by a failed attempt to corner the silver market and it led to massive panic in other commodities.
The attempt to corner the silver market was made by brothers Nelson Bunker Hunt and Herbert Hunt. The sharp sell-off occurred once the two men were unable to meet various margin calls that were caused by short-term weakness in the silver price. A group of U.S. banks needed to step in with a $1.1 billion line of credit, which helped bring stability back into the futures markets.
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