Although gold tends to get the most love when it comes to precious metals, silver has been an important part of our history from medicine to photography to religious rites!
With our Sterling Silver Showcase event just around the corner, we thought we’d take a look at some of the fun, wacky and surprising facts about silver that you might not know:
1. Silver is the most reflective metal
Silver is super shiny! Polished silver reflects 95% of the visible light spectrum, which makes it the most reflective metal. Because of that, many mirrors are coated with it. Its reflective properties are also used for objects like telescopes, microscopes and solar panels.
2. Mexico is the leading producer of silver
Mexico is the world‘s largest producer of silver, and has maintained that lead for some years now. In 2017, the country produced 5,600 metric tons of the metal. Peru is the second largest producer of silver, followed by China.
3. Silver is a fun word for so many reasons
Can you come up with a word that rhymes with silver? Nope. The word silver comes from the Anglo-Saxon word seolfor, and it is notoriously known as one of the English words with no possible rhyme. Also, the words for 'silver' and 'money' are the same in fourteen languages or more.
4. Silver has been around forever
Silver is one of the first five metals to ever be discovered. Silver objects have been found dating as far back as 4000 BC. Silver was the first metal to be used as currency, and in ancient Egypt, it was valued higher than gold!
5. It is good for your health
We’ve all heard the phrase “born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth,” and most of us would take that to mean the child grew up wealthy. But did you know that the idiom originated as a way of saying that the person never seems to get sick? Because of silver’s germ-killing properties, in the old days children who were fed with silver spoons (which was a luxury often reserved for wealthier families) were typically healthier babies.
6. Silver was used a lot in currency
The first silver US dollar coin was minted in 1794. Some experts say these were the first silver dollars minted anywhere in the world that became so popular and widespread that out of this coin was born the idea of what the dollar should be. In a 2015 auction, one of these went for just under $5 million. Coins minted in the United States prior to 1965 consists of about 90% silver, and Kennedy half dollars minted in the United States between 1965 to 1969 contained 40% silver.
7. Silver has the highest thermal conductivity of any element
Out of all the elements, silver is the best electric conductor, and is actually used as the standard by which other conductors are measured. On a scale of 0 to 100, silver ranks 100 in terms of electrical conductivity. Copper ranks 97 and gold ranks 76.
8. Silver can make it rain
The compound silver iodide has been used for cloud seeding, to cause clouds to produce rain and try to control hurricanes.
Make sure to come check out our selection of never before shopped silver this July 13th and 14th. See you soon!!