What Silver Is?

Since ancient times, mining for silver has been carried out. It was a source of wealth for kings in Europe. The King of Spain was delighted at the discovery of America as he would be able to obtain silver from mines in Peru and Mexico. The Spanish mines started to run low. For the king of Spain, the mines at Potosi in Peru produced silver worth 4,000,000 dollars every year, for a period of 250 years.

In California during Goldrush days’ people cursed the ‘black earth’, because it stuck to their gold dust. Only accidentally they discovered that that was silver.

Silver is a very distributed metal. It is found sometimes even in solid form. A single piece of silver weighing 750 kilograms was once found in Norway. Usually, it has to be separated from ores.

In ore, it is usually combined with sulfur as sulfur sulfide or some other sulfide. Chief combinations are copper, lead, arsenic. In the United States, its most common combination is lead. Silver occurs in many combinations and thus different meth-ods are adopted to separate it out.

Silver is too soft to be used in its pure state and is thus combined with many metals. In coins, 10 percent copper is added to 90 percent silver. The sterling silver used for jewelry and silverware is 92.5 percent silver and balance 7.5 percent as copper.

The word ‘sterling’ has a particular origin. The origin lies in a North German family called Easter ling. They were so honest traders that King John of England gave them the job of making English coins in the year 1215. Their job was so beautifully and honestly executed that their name is used as a sign of solid worth. All sterling silver is stamped with a hallmark, either the word “sterling” or a symbol depending on the country.

Pure silver, in the air, does not tarnish. Its turning black indicates sulfur in the air, for which oil wells or city smoke may be the source. It is next to gold in working easiness. About 30 grams of silver can be drawn into a wire about 50 kilometers long. It is a very good conductor of heat and electricity.