In antiquity gold fluctuated between 5 and 15 times the value of silver. It is currently worth 80x more than silver. This despite silver having greater industrial utility and being only 19x more abundant.
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Maybe a simple yet non-trite answer is that silver was in greater demand back in the day while the demand for gold has stayed steady. Looking at silver and gold prices over the last century, I see the ratio of gold to silver has more to do with the price of silver than the price of gold. When the ratio narrows, both metals will be rising but silver will be rocketing. Perhaps, the ancients preferred silver jewelry much more than we do. And maybe the minting industry back then was a greater driver of prices than electronics is today. Minting and jewelry demand may have even gone hand in hand. Since people equated silver with buying power due to silver coins being the predominant form of currency, silver jewelry may have been seen as a greater status symbol than it is today. Also, the margins on gold plaited silver jewelry may have been huge if con men could more easily get away with claiming the piece was 14k gold. That could have caused some of the extra demand.
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