Silver in Ancient Times

Silver has been a precious metal for centuries, reaching at least as far back as the city-state of Greece, and possibly even further than that. For instance, the silver standard was what helped bring Athens to power as they could mint silver coins and create a method to regulate trade through this minting. However silver was used as an accessory long before this, with ancient people making everything from clothing clasps to rings and bracelets out of silver and silver alloys for both practical as well as decorative purposes.

To assemble a timeline, silver mines goes back at least to 500 B.C. in Europe, though these are just the records that we have from city-states. It’s entirely possible that back many centuries further silver was being used by peoples like the Persians and the Egyptians, though in both of these cultures silver seemed to take a backseat to gold, which was purer, was immune to oxidation and which could be shaped and stampled more easily than silver using the methods available to the ancient smiths and craftsmen.