Why People Love Silver

Silver has been money, jewellery, cutlery and camera film. People have been hanging on to it for thousands of years, and the reasons have way more to do with history and fun than with spreadsheets.

Silver was money first

• About 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia, silver was measured out by weight using the shekel.
• Around 440–404 BC Athens struck silver tetradrachms with Athena on one side and her owl on the other. You can see one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Until 1857 the Spanish silver dollar, the famous "piece of eight," was legal tender in the United States.
• From around 775 England struck silver pennies called "sterlings," 240 from a pound of silver. Big payments were counted in "pounds of sterlings," and that's where the pound sterling comes from.

Silver is still in the language. In French, argent means both silver and money. Across much of Latin America, plata means money too.

Silver is seriously useful

Silver conducts electricity and heat better than any other metal, which is why it turns up in electronics. For more than a century it was also the magic behind film photography, where tiny silver crystals captured every picture.

It's history you can hold

A worn 1940s dime was in someone's pocket during the war. A caribou quarter may have paid for a movie ticket in 1955. Junk silver is the easiest way to own real history, and it doesn't need a museum budget.

The hunt

Sorting a pile and finding a 1948 dime or a 1947 maple leaf is a genuine rush. Some collectors chase every date in a series, some chase varieties, and some just like the jingle. There's no wrong way to do it.

It makes a great gift

A coin from someone's birth year, a date run for a new collector, or a bundle for a kid who just discovered coins. Silver lasts, and so does the story that comes with it.

And yes, it's real silver

Unlike a banknote, every silver coin carries its own metal. For a lot of people that's part of the appeal: something small, solid and real.

Keep learning

• What Is Junk Silver?: what counts, and how to count it.
• Sorting the Coin Jar: pull the silver out of any pile of change.

Start your own story with our coin bundles, or dig into Is My Canadian Coin Silver?.