Silver Data Facts Sheet

Silver AG hardness 2.5-3 gravity 10-11

Silver has been prized for its beauty and durability for at least 6000 years.

Silver is the best conductor of heat of all elements.

Silver is the best conductor of electricity of all elements.

Silver has the highest degree of optical reflectivity of all elements. A silver mirror can reflect about 95% of the visible light spectrum. (most mirrors are silver)

Silver is more malleable than any element except gold. (malleability is the ability of a substance to be hammered into thin sheets)

Silver is more ductile than any element except gold. (ductility is important in drawing a metal into thin wire)

Estimates of the proportion of silver in the Earth's crust vary from less than a hundred millionth to a few hundred millionths.

A rich deposit of silver may yield several thousand ounces of silver per ton of ore.

The most common silver mineral it argentite. Pure argentite is about 85% silver.

Silver sometimes occurs in nature in virtually pure form, as few other metals do. (gold and copper among them)

Silver appears in the periodic table of elements in the same column as (and between) gold and copper.

More than 2/3 of the silver produced worldwide is a byproduct of lead mining and copper mining.

The major producers of silver include the United States, Mexico, Canada, Peru, Russia and Australia.

About 1/3 of the silver produced worldwide is used in photography.

Sterling silver is an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% some other metal(s), usually copper.

Sterling silver has almost twice the tensile strength of pure silver. (tensile strength is the ability of a substance to resist breaking when stretched)

Sterling silver has more than twice the hardness of pure silver. (hardness is the resistance of a substance to scratching)

Silver iodide is often used in cloud seeding, A pound of silver iodide is enough to seed many cubic miles of clouds.

United States silver dollars contained 371.25 grains of pure silver. (a troy ounce contains 480 grains) The gold dollar contained 24.75 grains of pure gold. The
ratio between the two was 15 to 1. In 1834, the amount of pure gold in the United States gold dollar was decreased to 23.2 grains, which effectively made the ratio 16 to 1.

The United States silver half dollar contained less than half as much silver as the dollar. The half contained 172.8 grains.

In 1965, the silver content of the United States half dollar was reduced to 40%. By 1970, the United States half dollar contained no silver.

The market price of silver hit $50.35 per ounce in January 1980.