The History Of Silver

Silver mining dates back as far as 3000 B.C. in Asia Minor. As silver ore often contains lead, the life expectancy of people mining silver was very short. For this reason, people refused to work in silver mines and slave labour had to be used.

Silver has been used for thousands of years for jewellery, silverware and other decorative items. As untarnished silver is the most reflective of all metals and is the best reflector of light, it was used for mirrors in ancient times. Unfortunately, it tarnishes very quickly, so its use as a mirror could be very exasperating.

Silver has long been linked with currency and was first coined as money by the Lydians around 700 B.C. Since then silver has been used as currency by many countries, including the UK and USA. In the UK, the pound (£) derived its name from the fact that its value was one troy pound of sterling silver. In the United States silver coins were minted as currency from 1794-1965 in 90% silver.