Key points:

1.  Silver has one of the highest reflective surfaces compared to other metals, making it attractive for jewellery
2.  Sterling Silver is a mixture of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper
3.  Given its higher density, Sterling Silver is more commonly used for jewellery than pure silver
4.  Being slightly harder and more durable than gold, silver is more practical for everyday jewellery
5.  Silver is widely available and affordable but tarnishes over time

Silver jewellery has been prevalent in many different civilizations. The value of silver may have shifted slightly over the years, but its popularity is certainly still a major factor within modern-day society.

Whenever one thinks of gold jewellery, the perception of silver jewellery is sure to follow. Gold and silver tend to go hand-in-hand in jewellery, weaponry and primordial currency whenever a topic involves pre-history. The ancient Egyptians use silver (as well as gold) for many functions in a fairly equal manner. Gold, in the Egyptians eyes, was considered to be a flawless metal. It was even seen as “perfect” and even “eternal”. This is why they used the symbol of a “circle” with their hieroglyphics to signify gold. However, silver was also used on a regular basis and the symbol for it was a “half-circle”. This is because they didn’t see silver quite as “perfect” or “beautiful” as gold. Later, this symbol evolved into a symbol of the crescent moon. Many experts believed that this was because silver very much reflected the radiance of the moon, hence its newly evolved symbol. After this notion was established, silver was considered a little more valuable and highly majestic through the eyes of the ancient Egyptians. This metal was found to be very malleable and ductile, which is why it was rooted more into the ground of sacredness that gold was standing on.

Silver is slightly harder and more durable than gold. Silver was used for flat currency throughout the 19^th century and in 1969 the U.S. officially printed out its last flat silver coin. Other facets of modern society use silver for other purposes such as medicine, dentistry, tools and mirrors.  One of the most prominent uses for this element today is for silver jewellery. A key alluring characteristic of silver is that it has one of the highest reflective surfaces (besides aluminum) compared to other metals.

Silver jewellery these days are usually made from a very particular type of silver known as “Sterling Silver”. The properties that are found in this type of metal are 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper. This type of metal usually has a shiny surface that’s implemented as a finishing technique before it is set out into the market. This is known as “flashing” which is achieved by coating with .999% of fine silver or rhodium. Being harder and higher in density than pure silver, Sterling Silver is used more for jewellery than pure silver.

Silver wasn’t mined strictly for adornments until around 4000 B.C. (the Bronze Age). When silver was unearthed in mines located deep within West Asia and Europe (around Anatolia, Turkey to be exact) they were covered with lead. With lead being poisonous, miners were passing away from “lead poisoning” after only a few years of working in the mines. Therefore, slaves were forced to go into these mines to extract the silver that are embedded into the large pieces of lead. Free men wouldn’t go anywhere near them. Shortly after this, Greece became the world’s leading providers for silver. This continued for quite a few eras until Spain discovered their own mines. South Spain quickly became the key location used for finding silver. They used this metal for bartering for spices, clothing, food and other goods. During the first Punic War, the Carthaginians relied on these mines as a source of income to pay off the demands of the invading Romans. This was proven to be fairly effective until the 2^nd Punic War started, which is when the Romans took over the mines in Spain for themselves. Today, the lead mining locations for silver are Australia, Canada, Mexico, Bolivia, USSR, Germany and the U.S.A.

The symbol for silver (as shown on the periodic table) is “Ag” and it is numbered at 47. The leading mineral that is found in silver is called “argentite” (Ag2S). There are sibling minerals that are also found along side argentite. These are; cerargirite (AgCI), stefanite (5Ag2S.Sb2S3), piragirite (3Ag2S.Sb2S3) and proustite (3Ag2S.Ag2S3). Silver is found within these metals after they go through rigorous extraction treatments. The origin of the periodic symbol for silver came from the ancient Romans. They called this element “argentum” which is Latin for simply, “silver”. Terms were found in German and ancient Anglo-Saxon tongues that went by seolfor and siolfor that also just meant, “silver”.  The name of “argentum” spread into international status that continues to be adopted to this day with scientists of all fields.  

Silver is considered as both a beautiful and practical piece of metal. Today, it can be found just about anywhere. Silver is a great secondary metal that people all over the world are enjoying. In fact, there are even some occurrences that people found this metal to be more alluring than gold.