Posted on April 30 2017
The Amazing History of Silver
Silver, a precious metal and favorite for millennia, has quite the amazing history. For you science lovers, the chemical symbol for silver is ‘Ag’. Ag is used because the latin word for silver is ‘Argentum’. From the beginning of its mining some 5000 years ago, to the ring you’re wearing now, it has been a mainstay of human civilization and commerce for a very long time indeed.
Anatolia (modern day Turkey) is believed to be the first place in the world silver was mined for civilizations some 4000 years ago. This metal was used in civilizations in and around Greece and the island of Crete off the coast of Turkey for trade and jewelry purposes dating back thousands of years. Many years later Spain eventually became the head of silver production in the world, around 100 A.D., due to being major suppliers to the Roman Empire. Additionally, silver was heavily used for trade along the Asian spice routes, heavily traded at the time.
Even more amazing, some of the worlds oldest treasures are made of silver. For example, the oldest official coin ever discovered was minted by King Alyattes in Lydia (modern day Turkey). This coin is made of a Silver – Gold alloy that was known to be tougher and harder than gold alone. This alloy was called “electrum” and was known as “white gold” in the ancient world. It carried quite a heavy price and was punched with elaborate symbols to represent the kingdom and display it’s purity. One of these coins was worth about a month’s salary for people then.
Another amazing examples of the fortitude of silver are artifacts known as the Silver Scrolls. These date back to around 600 B.C. and you can still read the engravings on them! They consist of small silver sheets that were rolled up into a scroll and buried in a cave in Jerusalem. A prayer is inscribed on the surface of the scrolls that is still legible today! As you can see silver will last more than any lifetime.
As recently as the last century, advancements in mining, drilling, and discovery techniques has made silver more affordable to common people. This is despite it’s rarity (0.1 parts per million in the earth’s crust!) You can now wear around your finger or neck a precious metal that was once used to display a king’s dominion over a nation or to support and entire trade culture. Silver’s beauty is ever lasting and it will never cease to be loved by the people of the world.
Grab yourself a piece of history today, at Laszlo V Jewelry.