The Silver Series: The History of Silver

THE SILVER VISUAL CAPITALIST SERIES A THREE PART SERIES The History of Silver Supply and Demand Silver as an Investment L oday, silver has thousands of industrial uses and is considered by investors as a store of wealth. However, the story of this legendary precious metal begins with ancient civilizations. Airgead Just look at the GAELIC similarity between arly words for Argentum LATIN SILVER LEPPOAS TOPPAZILUA Arjuna SANSKRIT 4 There are attributes that made silver so valuable to early civilizations Malleability 1 2.5 Moh's Hardness Scale (Roughly equivalent to the average fingernail) Silver can be hammered so thin that 100,000 sheets wouldn't stand higher than an inch Aesthetics 2 Why is silver so highly regarded? It is ductile Silver's formability made it highly prized among artisans looking to create ornate artwork. In fact, silver can be stretched into a wire thinner than a human hair. It is lustrous Silver can achieve the most brilliant polish of any metal. It is resilient Silver is extremely corrosion resistant. Silver only tarnishes when it comes in contact with Sulphur For most of human history, silver maintained its lustre over time. Since the industrial revolution, however, small amounts of sulphur are present throughout the atmosphere and silver is now constantly tarnishing. Antibacterial 3 Silver ions actively break down the cell walls of bacteria (even at concentrations as low as one part per billion) Interestingly, it has no effect on cells of larger organisms. Ag DROPS Water Purification Medicine Preventing Illness From Alexander the Great to NASA, people have used silver to prevent spoilage in stored liquids throughout history. Silver ions prevent bacterial growth and speed healing time. Silver can be found in During the Bubonic Plague, wealthy people ate with silver- ware and silver dishes to protect themselves from disease. everything from bandages to eyedrops for newborn babies. Hence the phrase, "Born with a silver Mouth" spoon in your Rarity 4 Most importantly, silver is valuable because it is rare. Today, all the silver ever mined in history would fit in this 52m cube 1,464,700 tonnes Production has increased dramatically in modern times. Only 7% of this cube was mined prior to 1492 74% has been mined since 1900 Silver is not nearly as rare as gold, but that does have advantages. Even the smallest gold coins were too valuable for everyday transactions like buying a loaf of bread. Silver was the perfect material for smaller denominations and as a result has been the most widely used material for coinage in history. The history of SILVER as a currency AG 2686-2181 BC Ancient Egyptians value silver higher than gold, due to its rarity in the region. The skin of the gods is made of gold, but their bones are cast from silver. 99 564 BC Lydians mint the first coins using electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver. Au Ag A rich silver deposit is discovered near Athens, providing newfound wealth and prosperity. 482 BC In Ancient Europe, the types of ores containing silver also tended to carry toxic lead. To avoid lead poisoning, the Greeks forced enemy soldiers to mine their silver for them. At the height of production, 20,000 slaves worked the mine and a ton of lead was generated for every few: ounces of silver mined. Pb Pb Today we know silver occurs in many ores including types of copper, gold, lead, and lead-zinc deposits. The Saxon kingdoms of Britain issue silver coins known as "sterlings", using a pound of silver in 240 coins. The currency of the UK is still known as "British Pounds Sterling" today. 775 AD Columbus discovers the New World and opens up new areas for silver exploration. 1492 AD s of silver found in Mexico, Peru and ge a Bolivia reinvent the role of silver throughout the world and enrich the Spanish Empire for 300 years. During that time, those three countries account for 85% of world silver production and trade. One of the greatest silver mines of all time is discovered in Bohemia near Joachimsthal. It alone produced 3 million oz of silver per year at its peak in the 1530s. The coins produced from the mine, called Joachimsthaler - were called "thaler" for short and became a standard for European commerce. 1516 AD (Thaler) 17th Century Holland became a world trade power with its own version of the thaler. They called it the leeuwendaalder and used "daalder" for short. 1614 AD Europe (Daalder) When the Dutch founded the town of New Amsterdam (now New York) they took their daalder with them and it became the most popular trading currency on Manhattan. Locals called this currency DOLLAR 1792 AD New Amsterdam (Manhattan) The newly formed United States of America based their currency on the value of silver. One US dollar became equal to 24.056 g of silver. 2000 1859 AD The Comstock Lode is discovered in Nevada Kilometers of silver could be shoveled off the surface. This huge and unexpected supply of silver was part of the catalyst for the challenges the US Government and banking system would face: over the next 100 years they would de-monetize silver, re-monetize it again, and more. 1500 1000 1882, the Comstock Lode had yielded $397 million in ore. (Equivalent to more than $9 trillion today) American Ag 500 Production (Metric Tons) By the 1870's the US was the largest silver producer in the world, and yet production kept increasing for more than 40 years. 1860 1870 1880 1890 1967 AD The US removes all silver coins from circulation and in 1968 ends the redemption of silver certificates. The gold standard also ends in 1971 under President Nixon, making the US Dollar a fiat currency. For thousands of years, silver was inseparable with history and currency. Today, silver is a store of wealth and absolutely essential for modern industry and technology. COMING SOON Part 2: Supply and Demand Part 3: Silver as an Investment Visual Capitalist is committed to providing independently researched content for educational purposes. Thank you to Endeavour Silver for covering the production costs of this project. Learn more at WWW.edrsilver.com ENDEAVOUR SILVER NYSE: EXK TSX: EDR Frankfurt: EJD VISUAL CAPITALIST Educating a new generation of investors on resource investing and management VISUAL CAPITALIST www.visualcapitalist.com Top 5 Sources: http://bullion.nwtmint.com/silver_historyphp http://www.silverinstitute.org/site/silver-essentials/silver-in-history/ http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/silvermines.htm http://www.articlesbase.com/jewelry-articles/a-short-history-of-silver-603301.html http://www.chemicool.com/elements/silver.html For a complete list of sources, please visit: visualcapitalist.com/sources LLLII 2000000