Silver prices today, Friday, August 21, 2026: Silver pushes higher on weaker dollar

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Silver prices today, Friday, August 21, 2026: Silver pushes higher on weaker dollar

Catherine Brock · Contributing writer

Fri, August 21, 2026 at 7:13 PM GMT+3 3 min read

Silver (SI=F) September futures opened at $68.20 per ounce on Friday, August 21, 2026, up 0.1% from Thursday's closing price. The silver price moved higher this morning, reaching $69.49 as of 9 a.m. ET.

The opening silver price was up nearly 5% since last week as traders reacted to a record high in U.S. debt and the Treasury's unexpected announcement to increase long-term bond repurchases. The news contributed to a decline in the U.S. dollar. A weaker dollar supports higher silver prices by lowering the cost for foreign buyers.

Silver, like gold, can function as a safe-haven asset for investors, but its supply and demand dynamics differ. Most silver is mined as a byproduct of other metals, so producers don't necessarily change their output to fit demand. And silver demand has investment and industrial components. Those complexities can make silver more volatile and difficult to predict than gold.

Current price of silver

The opening price of silver futures on Friday, August 21, 2026, was 0.1% higher compared to Thursday's closing price. Here's how today's opening silver price has changed versus last week, month, and year:

• One week ago: +4.9%

• One month ago: +21.1%

• One year ago: +79.3%

For context, silver's year-over-year growth was 173.3% on May 14.

24/7 silver price tracking: Don't forget you can monitor the current price of silver on Yahoo Finance 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Want to learn more about the current top-performing companies in the silver industry? Explore a list of the top-performing companies using the Yahoo Finance Screener. You can create your own screeners with over 150 different screening criteria.

Investing in silver? Here's how to avoid taxes.

Do you have to pay taxes on silver? Yes. Silver is a capital asset, so when you sell it for more than you paid, the gain is taxable and reported on Schedule D of your federal return.

Many investors assume holding silver for more than a year qualifies them for the same long-term capital gains rates as stocks (0%, 15% or 20%).

Spoiler: It doesn't.

The 28% collectible tax trap

The IRS classifies physical precious metals — including bars, rounds, and coins — as collectibles. That classification changes the tax math in a big way.

Short-term gains

If you hold silver for one year or less, your profit is taxed as ordinary income. Depending on your tax bracket, that could go as high as 37%.

Long-term gains

If you hold silver for more than one year, your gain is taxed at your ordinary income rate — but no more than 28%.

Here's what that looks like in real life:

• If you're in the 10%, 12%, 22% or 24% bracket, your silver gain is taxed at that same rate.

• If you're in the 32%, 35% or 37% bracket, you're capped at 28%.

So if you're a middle-income earner accustomed to paying 15% on stock gains, silver can cost you more, maybe 22% or 24%, depending on your adjusted gross income.

If you're in the top brackets, the 28% cap is technically a discount versus 35% or 37% — but it's still higher than the 20% max long-term capital gains rate on stocks.

That difference adds up quickly when you're talking five- or six-figure gains.

Learn more: How to avoid taxes when investing in silver

Price of silver chart

Whether you're tracking the price of silver since last month or last year, the price-of-silver chart below shows the precious metal's value journey so far this year.

(SI=F )

Go deeper with AlphaSpace

69.61 +1.50 (+2.21%)

As of 12:30:03 PM EDT. Market Open.

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Investing in silver or other metals? Here's how to avoid taxes.

Silver's surge has delivered massive gains to investors — but the IRS treats it as a collectible, not a stock. Here's how taxes work and how to legally reduce what you owe.