eli5 what made people think that silver was such a precious resource?

Question

eli5 what made people think that silver was such a precious resource?

In: 18

Answer 1

In the old days, things were valuable generally for three reasons:

1) they were rare

2) people wanted them

3) You could be sure what they were

Silver isn’t as good as gold at those things, but it’s not bad. It’s rare, it’s pretty, and it’s relatively easy to tell pure silver from impure silver: because it’s relatively dense, it’s hard to fake it.

Now, the one problem with this is mercury and lead: Dipping lead in mercury gives a result that is slightly *more* dense than silver (so you leave the lead slightly hollow, or mix it with something less dense) and looks similar (which is why mercury is called “quicksilver”).