Talk:Silver/Archive 1

Archive 1

This archive includes threads from Talk:Silver from the page's creation until December 31st, 2010.

Thermal conductivity

I don't believe the section on thermal conductivity, so I added a citation needed. Silver has the highest thermal conductivity of the metals. Nevertheless, I think it is unlikely that diamond is the only non-metal with a higher thermal conductivity. Carbon nanotubes, for instance, can have thermal conductivities estimated at 6000 watts per meter per kelvin according to Wikipedia. This is much higher than silver. My impression was that other crystals could also have very high thermal conductivities (e.g. the wikipedia article on thermal conductivity mentions sapphire, but the numbers there looked wrong) -- not as high as diamond, but higher than the metals. There are two ways to conduct heat -- ones that are related to electrical conduction, and ones related to phonons. The former are dominated by metals, while the latter by regular structures like crystals. It'd take a pretty good survey to conclude that only diamond has higher thermal conductivity than silver. 141.154.126.233 19:10, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

older entries

Elementbox converted 12:35, 6 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 20:28, 29 June 2005).

Unusual uses of silver include the manufacture of prosthetic noses. :-)

My goodness: that comment sells itself short, by appearing to have a link to Prosthetic nose. Follow the link, for an intellectual treat. --Jerzy 16:50, 2004 Feb 20 (UTC)

---

...without causing noticeable harm to more complex life-forms.

Is this statement acceptable? I see people saying that it does, and that it bonds to human cells etc

How precious is a precious metal?

Your text on silver lists it as the second most precious metal following gold. In your text on platinum, you list this as considered more precious than gold. Is the "consideration" a common fallacy as reguards regards platinum as a marketable quantity, or is the text in error in calling silver the second most precious after gold?

The article precious metal states

The demand for precious metals is driven only in part by their practical use; it is also driven by their value as investments. Palladium is, as of January 2004, valued at about half the price of gold, and platinum at about twice that of gold. Silver is substantially less expensive than these metals, presently at 1/65 the price of gold, but is often traditionally considered a precious metal for its role in coinage and jewelry.

but doesn't "price" iridium.

With that possible exception, we can deduce the following sequence among the 4, which may or may not be the absolute ranking.

1. platinum
2. gold
3. Palladium
4. Silver

The injection of "marketability" into the discussion may refer to the distinction between the use of precious metals as hedges against currency fluctuations (or economic disaster) and their industrial uses. That distinction may be worth discussing in precious metal. (My understanding is that gold prices rise during crises to levels that would reduce its use for, e.g. edge-connector-plating in printed-circuit boards for electronics, if those prices were sustained in the long run. Gold futures contracts are industrial users' means of keeping their business running despite such fluctuations.)

But IMO let's treat this discrepancy for now as just sloppy research, unless someone comes forward with the intentions of previous editors, and for now reflect those rankings in the respective articles. Unless someone wants to research iridium prices first.

--Jerzy 16:43, 2004 Feb 20 (UTC)

Health Effects

Removed the following sentences because I believe they are incorrect:

• Silver is used in along with copper as an agent to remove algae in swimming pools in the United States by use of electrolysis.
• Some swimming pools do not use silver due to staining problems so they instead used copper-zinc colloids instead.

I can't find any information on the web about swimming pools being sterilized by the use of copper-zinc colloids.

I suspect the following sentence is also incorrect, but I don't know enough about the field:

• Copper is active against algae while silver is active against bacteria primarily due to silver's activity in the absorption of oxygen causing bacteria to oxidize on contact.

Bacteria do not oxidize, nor does silver readily "absorb" oxygen. Eric 03:28, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

hello Eric ! take a look at oligodynamic effect. michael

Yes, I read the oligodynamic page, but it doesn't say anything about oxidation. Why does the absorption of oxygen by silver and the resulting "oxidation" of the bacteria not have a similar effect on algae? Eric 17:57, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Hello Eric ! What do you mean by "oxidation of bacteria" and what do you mean exactly by "absorption of oxygen by silver" ? Silver-ions are interacting with some sulphur-containing enzymes and may therefore influence "respiration" of bacteria, and are "toxic" for silver-sesitive bacteria. Is this the effect you mean ? As i told on the discussion-page of colloidal silver, i made a (a bit quick and dirty) translation-attempt of my own webpage in german concerning silver and its oligodynamic effect.The link to that page is there. This text may help to find keywords for further investigation.

That was in reference to the sentence in the Health Effect section that I believe is incorrect. See above. Chemically speaking, it doesn't really make sense. Eric 20:22, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

The activity of some toxic heavy metals is the result of their affinity for sulfur, for example binding to sulfur in cysteine (Dartmouth Toxic Metals Research Article). Silver exists in one of its natural forms bound to sulfur so it also has affinity for sulfur (this article). I would assume this could pose a health risk, and perhaps explain it's "unknown" antibacterial activity (unknown according to appliance training on Samsung Silvercare laundry). However, upon reading an article about short-term and chronic toxicity, cyanide will be converted to thiocyanate in the body and does not build up over time, it may only cause immediate short-term effects in less than lethal doses. Is this a similar situation with silver?

There are health benefits in medical publications

I did a major restructuring of the health effects section. I removed the line:

• However, no clinical study has yet demonstrated a therapeutic use for silver as an antibiotic in vivo.

For I have found several studies claiming therapeutic benefits in vivo roaming around pubmed.

One of these is a study done on rabbits infecting them with herpes in the eyes and then dropping silver droplets either right in there, or after 20 hours. The study simply says under results: 'Prevention of keratoconjunctivitis'. It works. Many of the most recent entries in pubmed concerning silver only mention argyria, but I have not dug deeper into pre-1990 studies which should be much more common. Older scientific publications simply usually are not online, so the current medical library is biased to only the fashion of the last 25 years. And silver went out of fashion the moment antibiotics came into play.

I also removed the line:

Copper is active against algae while silver is active against bacteria primarily due to silver's activity in the absorption of oxygen causing bacteria to oxidize on contact.

Because the only source I could find for this is a site that immediately tries to sell you something. Also, there more than one possible process mentioned in the medical publications I read on the function of silver compounds in the body. It is also highly unlikely that the antibacterial function of silver is the same as it's antiviral function, and I can also find some evidence of this in the literature. I highly recommend keeping the explanation of the exact process open unless a credible source is cited.

Please provide sources for your additions. And sign your posts here.

I removed the following unsourced quote:

"A polymer protected form of silver, called Argleas, has been developed in the UK; it releases silver at a controlled rate, thereby overcoming the neutralizing effect of the ever-present chloride ions...this new form of silver has received approval from the US Food and Drugs Administration for use in antimicrobial dressings and with catheters."

If you have a source then reference it and re-insert. Thanks, Vsmith 12:59, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

The only contribution so far from the user who added this. Arglaes (note the spelling...) is a trademarked name of a product line of Medline Industries, Inc. - Reads like an advert anyway. Femto 13:22, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

• It appears to be a legitimate product, based on the number of hits in Google Scholar. It is, at least, the subject of genuine research. [http:// scholar.google.com/ scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=Arglaes &btnG=Search] But as there are similar products on the market, I think this particular application is non-notable. Even if it is significant, I think it probably belongs over at Silver nitrate rather than here. eaolson 17:15, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

The sentence: ...However, no clinical study has yet demonstrated a therapeutic use for silver as an antibiotic in vivo... is still valid. i am observing every month medline for new entries. there is no known evidence for any in-vivo treatment using silver so far. Redecke 17:54, 3 January 2006 (UTC)

Silver exhibits antibacterial activity as seen in microbiology courses. It is placed on agar innoculated with a bacterial culture. The plate is incubated, allowing bacteria to grow in a solid lawn on the plate. The area around the antibacterial agent inhibits bacterial growth, as observed by a clear ring around it. Silver is antibacterial as observed in this experiment. As an antibiotic within the body I suspect there are probably health effects and is not used as an antibiotic (like many other antibacterial agents).

Silver Whiskers an Application?

If you follow the article on Silver Whiskers, which is listed as an application, you'll find that it is a failure mechanism of silver and other metals, not an application. Stifynsemons 06:33, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

More Facts

If these facts have already been adressed, feel free to delete the bullet

• <>Who discovered it, and when?
• <>What is the oxidation number and states?
• <>What does the name mean?
• <>Where did the name come from?
• <>What is the solubility of it?
• <>What is the maleability of it?
• <What is the ductility of it?
• Is is flammable?
• What is it reactive with?

Smelting

Ought there not to be something in the article about how silver is produced from its ores? Peterkingiron 23:06, 15 April 2006 (UTC) Who founded silver? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.18.106.74 (talk) 17:41, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Antiwerewolf etc.

I've cut

* In legend, silver is traditionally seen as harmful to supernatural creatures like werewolves and vampires. The use of silver fashioned into bullets for firearms is a popular application.

... because werewolf and vampire articles say that neither mentions silver as a traditional weapon against them (except for a throwaway comment on Slavic vampire folklore saying that they were afraid of it, but not killed by it). Personally, I can't find any fictional refs to vampires and silver pre-Blade, although werewolves've been associated with the stuff for ages. I've replaced it with...

*Silver is often used in modern horror fiction as a weapon against certain supernatural entities, especially werewolves, who are sometimes described as being burned by silver.

... which puts more emphasis on the fiction and less on the legend. (I also moved it to the bottom of the list - it was i the middle of a load of scientific applications...) Tyrhinis 22:27, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

It'd also help if I realised modern fiction article doesn't exist. Bah. Tyrhinis 22:28, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Just for the record, it's been suggested that both the "full moon" and "silver" elements of werewolf myth stem almost ENTIRELY from the Universal horror movie of the 1940's (see also The Wolf Man (1941_film)), and that neither existed in werewolf folklore before then (silver being a traditional bane of vampires, not werewolves). As such, I've amended that part of the article. Hossenfeffer (talk) 07:07, 17 March 2009 (UTC)

Kind-a-folklorish-sort-of

Forgive me for doing before asking – but I namechanged section Superstition to Folklore. I wish the story of Judas Iscariot to be moved from History to Folklore, but Superstition is an inappropriate (read: religiopolitically incorrect) heading for the (historically unattested) story about everybody's love-to-hate-Judas-Iscariot. Rursus 11:46, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

Silver bullets (as opposed to those made of other materials, such as the usual lead, or such phenomena as the playing of a silver flute or the ringing of silver bells), are among the few material objects (among the others, garlic and crucifixes) and natural phenomena (sunlight) that can destroy the Dracula character of legend. The conventions for the Dracula character are so well established that they cannot be altered without using literary credibility.

Silver bullets are also associated with another legendary character, the Lone Ranger of radio serials, comic strips, television shows, and one dreadful movie as a calling card.

These references belong in literature or pop culture; they obviously lack any scientific validity. --Paul from Michigan 02:01, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Gas solubility

From my M.Sc. research I know that oxygen dissolves into silver rather easily. Attempts were made to create a membrane for filtering pure O2 from air. Shouldn't this be mentioned in the article? Like, under applications? -- Bakabaka 14:31, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Picture of 'Vulva11' attached to spoken audio of article

Image 'Vulva11.jpg' was somehow attached to 'Silver.ogg' so I removed the audio from the file for until it is cleaned up. The large picture of female genitalia appeared directly over the beginning of the article in a very distracting and not entirely unwelcome (yet inappropriate) way. This appears on (at least) Safari 2.0.4 and would be visible in the HTML source regardless. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.84.173.11 (talk) 10:08, 9 December 2006 (UTC).

Can't reproduce, it seems to be OK. I reverted the removal of the spoken article link. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 11:32, 9 December 2006 (UTC) (reinstate removed answer, seem to have removed that in a revision Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 18:14, 9 December 2006 (UTC))

I have been going through the links, through the source and through pages linking to the image you describe, but I cannot find how this page is linked here, maybe a strange browser error. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 18:21, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

hehehe... that's quite a browser error then. :) It was definitely a deliberate popup, although I don't see it anymore. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.84.173.11 (talk) 18:29, 9 December 2006 (UTC).

I should have added, I cannot find edits in the history as well. But well, if it is gone, it is gone :-) --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 18:40, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

It's Template:Spoken Wikipedia that was vandalized. Femto 19:15, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism?

I found 'suspected' vandalism in this article's Notable characteristics section, which I have, boldly, reverted. V. berus 02:10, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Porn Image

There was a huge pornographic image on the side of the article. I removed it.

Gibith 02:11, 19 March 2007 (UTC)Gibith

Any chance of a source for this?

& I quote:

Attempts have been made to construct silver membranes of only a few monolayers thickness.

Is there a source for this?

K

89.234.119.46 04:37, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

silver and laxatives

Hello, I just removed a comment about silver being used in laxatives, which is a use I have never heard of before and which I suspect is a case of subtle vandalism. If I'm wrong, feel free to restore the comment, but please cite a reliable source. Thank you. --Kyoko 15:02, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Isotopes section

That last sentence is pretty weird. What is a "live short-lived nuclide"? And it would be better from a copyeditor's standpoint not to begin a sentence with a superscript number. I hope someone who knows what the sentence is supposed to mean will fix it. --Milkbreath (talk) 13:25, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I replaced "live short-lived nuclides" with "unstable nuclides", since I wouldn't regard a half-life on the order of millions of years as short-lived. As far as the superscripts, the sentence would be read, "Palladium-107—silver-107 correlations..." Is that a violation of editing standards (which I admittedly know nothing about)? If so it could easily be written "Correlations between ¹⁰⁷Pd and ¹⁰⁷Ag..." A10t2 (talk) 18:16, 15 August 2008 (UTC)

Silver also inhibits viruses

It appears that in a 2005 study published in the Journal of Nanotechnology, silver in nano sized particles can prevent HIV from attacking cells - Study Shows Silver Nanoparticles Attach to HIV-1 virus. No mention that it actually kills the virus (unlike other hyped reports on this study). --Quatermass (talk) 11:02, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Silver compounds

The section on silver compounds isn't actually about that at all, but merely a bullet-point list of wikilinks and references to applications. Given the importance of silver in multiple areas of human activity, a summary of the main chemical properties of silver, and the types and range of its compounds would be appropriate. Please help to replace the mainly off-topic bullet points with a more informative section. And Happy New Year, by the way. Plantsurfer (talk) 19:21, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

The article does no address a question I have; in normal tarnishing of silver, such as for silverware, what is the resulting compound of the tarnish? The article mentions sulfides, but I wouldn't think that sulfer compounds are normally found in household air. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.249.47.11 (talk) 17:21, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

In dentistry

"The malleability and non-toxicity of silver make it useful in amalgams for dental fittings and fillings." What?? This sentence is completely nonsensical. It is not the malleability of silver that makes it useful for this purpose, but the plasticity of amalgam, and its ability to set hard relatively quickly. Also the non-toxicity of silver in this application is more than overriden by the toxicity of mercury. I propose this section is removed until a coherent and accurate statement of silver's value to dentistry can be produced.Plantsurfer (talk) 23:57, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Nice points. The original usage of malleability conjures to mind a hammer-wielding dentist cold working a silver nugget into a patient's freshly drilled cavity. Ouch! JaredAllred (talk) 19:15, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

In mirrors and optics

Are you sure that silver is the metal used to coat windows in architectural and motor vehicles? I bet it is more often aluminium. Citation please.Plantsurfer (talk) 00:04, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

In Clothing

This section (devoid of sources) was full of glowing superlatives and unsupported claims about the benefits of silver-containing fabrics. I toned it down. The language was reminiscent of claims made on the website of a major silver-fabric manufacturer (that website also glibly claims the silver confers electric and magnetic-field related health benefits). Therefore, possibly an employee or fan of that company had essentially "PR-ed" this section into a defacto subliminal ad. Rep07 (talk) 21:00, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Biblical references

I have removed a recent additon by an unsigned in user, who inserted a number of references to the Bible. The bribe to Judas Iscariot is likely to have been silver coins, but even if it was lumps of silver, the reference does nothing to add to the article, as it merely demonstrates that silver was a precious metal (which we already knew). The Old Testament referneces are similarly comparatively trivial. I am removing these primarily because this is a chemistry element on silver as an element, and not the proper place for literary references. If the Bible (which i believe in) had provided information on its early occurence or use, it should of course be included. There are some biblical allusions to smelting and refining processes, which could properly be included in an article on that (but not here). Peterkingiron (talk) 20:06, 18 March 2008 (UTC)

lack of info on history section

the spoken version, many years old contains a wealth of great history on silver which should be lifted from the archives to revive the sectionShawnlandden (talk) 03:35, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Silver and Sterling Silver

Are Silver and Sterling Silver the same? The travelling cat (talk) 14:30, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

No. Sterling silver is an alloy of copper and silver. It contains 925 parts per thousand by weight of silver and 75 parts per thousand of copper. Plantsurfer (talk) 15:47, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

We should link "sterling silver" to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_silver Wrnchhead76 (talk) 16:40, 14 October 2009 (UTC)wrnchhead76

It's already linked. Do a search for "sterling silver"; the second occurrence is linked.—Tetracube (talk) 16:58, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

S.A.W.

I noticed that under History the abbreviation S.A.W. appears after Muhammed's name. I know that this is common practice in Islam, but I can't imagine it's considered good form here. Unless there's an editing guideline to support this, I'm of the opinion it should be removed. A10t2 (talk) 15:42, 1 August 2008 (UTC)

Silver as food additive banned in Australia

This article mentions (without citation) that silver is banned in Australia as a food additive. Although this seems to pop up everywhere when searching on Google, upon checking the Australian Food Standards website it seems that this is either just a rumour, or that it was once banned in Australia and that this has since changed.

Either way, if you go to http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/thecode/foodstandardscode.cfm and check Part 1.3.1 Schedule 1, it looks to be legal, as long as it doesn't exceed the level stated by the Good Manufacturing Practice. I didn't actually look into the Good Manufacturing Practice, but nonetheless it seems as if it's legal.

Or I'm just looking at the wrong thing altogether in a misguided search for righteousness. That sounds about right.

-Richard 165.228.56.19 (talk) 07:16, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Silver drematicly decling in photography?

Is that really true, I would have thought most would be used in prints? AJUK ^Talk!! 23:24, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

I expect this is a reference to the decline of traditional photography, with the rise of digital imaging. Peterkingiron (talk) 10:22, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

Photography

Silver is the metal which produces the whitest, brightest reflection. Why then does the metallic silver in photographic film appear black? I read somewhere else that this depends on the grain size. How and why?--149.217.1.6 (talk) 15:06, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Silversmithery

This section is oversize for this article, and should be rigorously condensed. There is a main article silversmith, and therefore this article only needs a brief, generalized statement about it. At present the section is loosely written, straying into areas of European history that have no direct relevance to silver,(viz. most of the second paragraph). It also deals with European silversmithing in a way that gives an unbalanced picture. The section scarcely deals with other areas of world silversmithing. This section needs to be a crisp statement of the pivotal developments in the history of world silversmithery since antiquity, that provides overview, not the names and specific products of individual European silversmiths. Those details should be developed in another article. Plantsurfer (talk) 11:12, 1 March 2009 (UTC)

As you say, this section is covering the same material as silversmith (which is a redirect of silversmithery). The content of the section here beeds to be merged into that article, and only a summary left here. This will mean that the material added here, which looks interesting, will not be lost. This is an article on silver as a chemical element: it ought not to have much detail on any particular aspect, something to be left to sub-articles. I would suggest that the section title should become "silverware". It will be necessary to defend the summary against those who would seek to expand it expand it again. I thought that silverware was going to be a further duplicate, but it turns out to be a disambiguation page. Nevertheless, that might be the best location for the merged page, the disambiguation being dealt with in a capnote. Peterkingiron (talk) 10:19, 2 March 2009 (UTC)

I have moved the section to be a subsection of Precious metal. I will use the information when I rewrite the Silversmith article soon and then clean up the section here. Bryancpark (talk) 22:20, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Silver and money

"The words for "silver" and "money" are the same in at least 14 languages." seems suspicious. Not in most East and West-European languages (except for French), not in Japanese, Chinese and Korean. Any idea? Materialscientist (talk) 03:10, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Surely the answer is obvious. Coinage was largely made of silver bullion. In UK, we had gold, silver, and copper coinage so that the use of a different word is not surprising. However, the coinage was ultimately based: a pound (money) in English medieval Latin liber sterlingorum, which could be roughly translated as a pound (presumably weight) of sterling (silver). English currency effectively went from a silver standard to the gold standard in the 18th century, when the value of the (gold) guinea, which had previoualy fluctuated was fixed at 21 shillings. Peterkingiron (talk) 16:19, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I miss the answer on in which active 14 languages silver and money are same word. Obsolete terms wouldn't count here. Materialscientist (talk) 23:40, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Maybe more on Silver as a germ fighter etc?

Alot of "talk" Re: Collodialk silver in Health Food bsites. Know theres a danger of "poisoning" silver tinted skin .But really wondering how effective Silver is as a GERM fighter? Thanks(datedDayTu.Spet29,200921stCentDecidedecalered for my records Dr.Edson Andre'Johnson D.D.ULC>) Edsonbrasil (talk) 21:08, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

Use in horticulture

This is a section copied from the Colloidal silver article. I feel since it was removed there, it should go on here as it a well referenced paragraph that at the very least applies to something silvery.

Originally posted by User:Stmrlbs on June 16th, 2009, 22:33 [1]:

Silver ions have been shown to be an ethylene inhibitor by competing with ethylene for binding sites by the plant receptors. Because of this property, solutions containing silver ions are sometimes used by florist to keep flowers fresh longer . Since ethylene is also involved in the "sexing" of plants, this property of blocking ethylene synthesis is also used for forcing male flowers on female plants. As a result, the use of colloidal silver has become popular in Cannabis cultivation.

Article update

Found this list in the Peer Review backlog and went through the lists. By the time I commented on the two talks pages after the article copyedit, forgot to comment here - apologies for that. Reworded throughout for clarification, attempted to make some statements more neutral, did the ## units thing and later standardized abbreviations. The applications section is rearranged - a number of one/two sentence sub-sections consolidated into 'Other industrial and commercial uses'; 'Medical' and 'Medicine' merged into 'Medicinal'; and redundant commentary minimized.--MornMore (talk) 09:54, 12 November 2009 (UTC)

Archive 1

Density

Please correct the density for silver and the temperature with the following info. Density at 20 deg C is 10.492 g/cm3. Reference David R. Smith and F. R. Fickett; Low-Temperature Properties of Silver [J. Res. Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. 100, 119 (1995)] http://nvl.nist.gov/pub/nistpubs/jres/100/2/j12smi.pdf DLH (talk) 14:48, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Thanks, but this value is already in the infobox. Materialscientist (talk) 00:51, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

History

please tell me more about:

- Argentina( country)- why it has this name? does it relate to Silver( in Latin language, Silver is "Argentum")?

- The same question with "Rio de la Plata"?

- why ancient scientist wrote Silver like a moon( symbol)? because of color of Silver? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver#History —Preceding unsigned comment added by Meocon quyet doan (talk • contribs) 10:34, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

Also: what are some of the chemical properties of silver? I don't know how to find or tell what is chemical or physical. Thanks:) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.150.185.60 (talk) 18:04, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

- Oddly no mention is made of the Potosí mine in modern Bolivia. It was this mine that supplied the Spanish treasure fleets. Because prior to independence Bolivia and Peru were regarded as one territory, we have the slightly misleading assertion that it was Peru (not Bolivia)that has been a major source of silver since the 16th century. The fact that Wikipedia itself has several articles referring to places named after Potosí is indicative of the legendary vastness of the lode Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 15:25, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

- Incidentally much of Bolivia's silver was transported back to Europe via the Rio de la Plata Everybody got to be somewhere! (talk) 15:25, 9 November 2010 (UTC)

You will get better answers if you ask at the Wikipedia:Reference desk, but I'll provide a few relevant reading links here, for instructions on how to use Wikipedia to the best,

Users Augusta2 (aka "Everybody got to be somewhere") and Meocon quyet doan asks

Q: Argentina( country)- why it has this name? does it relate to Silver( in Latin language, Silver is "Argentum")?

See Argentina#Etymology and Name of Argentina

Q: The same question with "Rio de la Plata"?

See Rio de la Plata#Etymology

Q: why ancient scientist wrote Silver like a moon( symbol)? because of color of Silver? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver#History

I think nobody knows for sure, but I think that the old alchemy and astrology is responsible for connecting silver, the next most noble element, with the moon, the next brightest object in the sky, as gold was connected with the sun...

Q: Also: what are some of the chemical properties of silver? I don't know how to find or tell what is chemical or physical.

I propose Wikiversity School Chemistry, I couldn't find the counterparting School:Physics

Q: Thanks:)

...no reason, instead try the reference desk as mentioned...

Statement: Oddly no mention is made of the...

That is definitely worth noting, for mayhap future improvement of the article, thanks for that!

Statement: Incidentally much of Bolivia's silver was transported back to Europe via the Rio de la Plata

That is worth noting too. Rursus dixit. (^mbork³!) 19:36, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

- Missing history of silver in China. China's economy was based on silver even into the 20th century and partially protected the country form the Great Depression (why I don't know). How much silver circulated in China? Did it rival Roma during any dynasty? How much did China have during Han Dynasty when Roma existed? Did first banks in China start with silver? The noun bank is 银行 (silver shop). Much of American silver went to China, trade deficits, so much that this event help motive UK to sell opium in China to balance trade (even though opium was illegal in UK).

Silver as a conductor in cables for high quality audio

The silver article contains a mention of using silver for special high quality audio and power connector cables. This is pure quackery. I have tried to remove it twice but it has been immediately reinstated by Markvs88 without any reason or explanation, despite my invitation to discuss it here. At the very least such outrageously unscientific points of view should be introduced by words such as "some schools of thought believe ..." 90.214.249.180 (talk) 23:47, 29 November 2010 (UTC)

I agree thoroughly. Silver is widely used in radio frequency applications where the skin effect really does make the higher conductivity marginally useful. The fact that the tarnish on silver is also a good conductor increases its attraction to RF designers for mating surfaces of connectors. The difference in conductivity between copper (16.78 nΩ·m) and silver (15.87 nΩ·m) is less than 6%. Audiophools can get exactly the same effect by increasing the size of conductors by that amount! RF engineers are constrained in the dimensions they can use by the nature of tuned circuits and so cannot do this. They therefore do use silver as a conductor. Audiophools discovered that the military used silver (plated) conductors in their 'cost no object' radio equipment and considered that this inevitably had a benefit for them. This is not the case. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Andy.Cowley (talk • contribs) 02:18, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Yes, I've reverted it twice. Your invitation to chat was actually a call to see if "I could get support" to keep in something you wanted to remove, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense -- by that logic you could delete about a third of the article (nevermind a whole lot of Wikipedia). I also don't find "rubbish" and "techno-babble" to be very descriptive. However, if you would explain why the points should be deleted, I'm open to read it. Best, Markvs88 (talk) 02:48, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Err. I was hoping you could say something factual about this application and spare my time from looking it up from scratch. Unfortunately I can't access the quoted ref, at least now. Materialscientist (talk) 02:58, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

There is a small group of manufacturers exploiting a niche market where they have convinced audio enthusiasts that copper wire is not good enough for connecting things together, and that silver is better. And of course their products aimed at this market are outrageously expensive, affordable only by those who have more money than sense. The power cable example illustrates the total absence of scientific reasoning behind this kind of product: why would using one meter of silver power cable between the wall socket and your amplifier make it sound different or better? The remaining 99.99% of the power delivery circuit back through the switchboard to the electricity utility's distribution system is made of copper! Wikipedia should not condone or permit any attempts by interested parties to promote (however discretely) these silver-based wiring products. 90.214.249.180 (talk) 12:57, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

While I understand your desire to right a percieved wrong/untruth (and your considerable knowledge in this field), Wikipedia isn't in search of truth, but wp:verifiability. Consider the line: "Some high-end audio hardware (DACs, preamplifiers, etc.) are fully silver-wired, which is believed to cause the least loss of quality in the signal." It's pretty neutral in tone. It doesn't state categorically that it does the job better nor that the addition of silver makes the sound necessarily better -- just that it is the least loss of signal quality. Is the delta in loss 10% or 0.0001%? I don't know, but the line says that some high-end products use silver. Can you cite either that there are no silver-using "high end audio hardware producers", or perhaps that silver does not have less signal loss than copper? Best, Markvs88 (talk) 14:52, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Wires used for supplying signals at low voltages don't cause any loss in signal quality, regardless of which metal they are made of. They might collect interference but that will be the same for all metals. Wires for supplying current to heavy loads such as loudspeakers should have the lowest resistance possible - silver wires have a resistance of about 6% less than copper ones of the same size, but cost 800 times as much. Not a very good engineering solution: a better idea would be to use 6% more copper, which will reduce the resistance to the value for the silver wires, and yet only cost 6% more! Based on resistivity of Ag = 1.59×10−8 Ω·m, Cu = 1.68×10−8 Ω·m, price of Ag = $25/troy oz, Cu = $8.50/kg, 1kg = 32 troy oz. I repeat: the marketing of silver wires is a ploy to extract cash from people with more money than sense. 90.214.249.180 (talk) 21:55, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Sure, but there are two separate issues here - (i) whether silver is needed there (most likely not, even for low-Ohm speakers) (ii) whether it is actually used there (for marketing purposes), like it or not. Materialscientist (talk) 22:55, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

90.214.249.180, you're debating cost vs. performance but you've just admitted that silver has a (minimally) lower resistance than copper. I can't see any reason for the removal of the point given its tone. If you like, I would support you adding (preferably with a citation) as to why this claim is spurious per your posting here, but not its removal as it is basically factual. Best, Markvs88 (talk) 23:53, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

PS: Just thought of the clincher argument ... bullets are made of lead, because bullets are supposed to be heavy, and lead is a dense metal. But gold is even denser, so why not make bullets out of gold? Reason: gold bullets are admittedly good, but too expensive; if you want heavier bullets, make bigger ones using lead! 90.214.249.180 (talk) 23:46, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Not relevant. Luxury items are not economical and do not require price reduction. Materialscientist (talk) 23:49, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

I agree with Materialscientist here. That's a debate purely on price, not qualilty. (AFAIK gold bullets would only be significantly better on Cybermen. Best, Markvs88 (talk) 23:59, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

Price

Silver is $36 today. Could someone update it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.149.99.237 (talk) 09:52, 6 June 2011 (UTC)

Argentum root

In the article, which of the two following statements is correct? The Intro says Latin: argentum, from the Indo-European root *arg- for "grey" or "shining", while the History section says from the Indo-European root *arg- meaning "white" or "shining". I suspect grey is wrong, because grey doesn't shine, but I equally suspect silver isn't white! Does anyone know a printed source for the Indo-European root of *arg, to clear this up? Pete Hobbs (talk) 09:50, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Jewelry

Argentus - In the 1970s and 1980s Jostens made some class rings out of Argentus which they described as follows: "Jostens Argentus A new dawn in white precious for your college ring. A unique blend of silver and palladium, (not stainless steel) metals. Argentus is hard and durable and will retain its brightness and beauty for years to come." Wsteinborn (talk) 09:20, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

Medical uses

There is already a section Medical which fully develops this topic. Why is it necessary to open a new section called Medical uses in Human exposure and consumption. Plantsurfer (talk) 08:22, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Silver notation as "AR"

There is a symbol for silver not mentioned in the article. "AR" is used to denote silver in numismatic circles. In these scenarios Ag is only really used when the coin is worn such that it is only worth the silver bullion value. I am not going to add this as it is frustratingly hard to reference (and from experience, unreferenced inclusions get deleted)! If you type AR coin into google though all the images are silver coins... but i can't find it written.  :/ 90.193.233.49 (talk) 11:10, 22 September 2012 (UTC)

Even if proper sources were found documenting such, the terms are extraneous to the subject of silver, and best not included in this article. The most common standardized abbreviation and brief etymology is given and sufficient. The term "AR" as related to describing silver coins of antiquity is more related to the subjects of numismatics or coin grading or AR, et al. Ah, the last does have an entry for AR being "Argent, the heraldic tincture of silver". -- EsotericRogue Talk 09:12, 21 October 2012 (UTC)

Electron configuration

My humblest apologies, but I could not find the appropriate place to put this question, but why is the noble gas abbreviation given as the electron configuration, and it doesn't look correct? Should it not be [Kr] 5s^2 4d^9? I'm currently teaching electron configuration and noble gas abbreviations to my students, and would love an explanation if I'm mistaken. 68.207.188.211 (talk) 02:33, 31 October 2012 (UTC)Wynni/Wynnifitz

The "usual" explanation is that half- and fully-filled orbitals are preferable in general, thus 5s2 4d9 is higher in energy than 5s1 4d10. This is similar to copper's electron configuration of 3d10 4s1. The usual counterexample is the electron configurations of Ni, Pd, Pt: [Ar]3d8 4s2, [Kr]4d10, [Xe]4f14 5d9 6s1.

I don't know the answer off the top of my head, but I believe spin orbit coupling and relativistic effects are invoked for the heavier metals. --Rifleman 82 (talk) 15:17, 31 October 2012 (UTC)

For Cu, Ag, and Au, the stability of a filled d-subshell gives them a ground state nd¹⁰(n 1)s¹ configuration, with nd⁹(n 1)s² being the first excited state. However, for Au, relativistic effects must be taken into account and the s electrons are also relativistically stabilized; this effect is even larger for Rg, where the 6d⁹7s² configuration is so stabilized that it becomes the ground state. (This can be seen in group 6 too: for Cr and Mo, the stability of a half-filled d-subshell appears to dominate, giving a nd⁵(n 1)s¹ configuration, but for W and Sg, where relativistic effects need to be taken into account, the stabilization of a filled s-subshell appears to dominate, giving a nd⁴(n 1)s² configuration.) Double sharp (talk) 08:27, 1 November 2012 (UTC)

Medical uses of silver

We have an article on the Medical uses of silver that is referred to in the Silver article. I would like for this information to be the same for each page. The intro to the Med uses of silver is:

The medical uses of silver include its incorporation into wound dressings, and its use as an antibiotic coating in medical devices. While wound dressings containing silver sulfadiazine or silver nanomaterials may be used to treat external infections,<ref name="Burns2007">Atiyeh BS, Costagliola M, Hayek SN, Dibo SA (2007). "Effect of silver on burn wound infection control and healing: review of the literature". Burns. 33 (2): 139–48. doi:10.1016/j.burns.2006.06.010. PMID 17137719.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)</ref><ref name=pmid16722867>Qin Y (2005). "Silver-containing alginate fibres and dressings". International Wound Journal. 2 (2): 172–6. doi:10.1111/j.1742-4801.2005.00101.x. PMID 16722867. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)</ref><ref name="Hermans2006">Hermans MH (2006). "Silver-containing dressings and the need for evidence". The American journal of nursing. 106 (12): 60–8, quiz 68–9. doi:10.1097/00000446-200612000-00025. PMID 17133010.</ref> there is little evidence to support their use.<ref name=Dress2010/> Silver is also used in some medical applications, such as urinary catheters and endotracheal breathing tubes, where there is tentative evidence that it is effective in reducing catheter-related urinary tract infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia respectively.<ref name=Bou2012>Bouadma, L (2012 Aug). "Ventilator-associated pneumonia and its prevention". Current opinion in infectious diseases. 25 (4): 395–404. doi:10.1097/QCO.0b013e328355a835. PMID 22744316. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)</ref><ref name=Beattie2011/> The silver ion (Ag
) is bioactive and in sufficient concentration readily kills bacteria in vitro. Silver and silver nanoparticles are used as an antimicrobial in a variety of industrial, healthcare and domestic applications.<ref>Maillard, Jean-Yves; Hartemann, Philippe (2012). "Silver as an antimicrobial: Facts and gaps in knowledge". Critical Reviews in Microbiology: 1. doi:10.3109/1040841X.2012.713323.</ref>

Colloidal silver a (colloid consisting of silver particles suspended in liquid) and formulations containing silver salts have been marketed with claims of treating a variety of diseases.<ref name="fda-rule"/> Colloidal silver was used by physicians in the early 20th century, but its use was largely discontinued in the 1940s following the development of safer and more effective modern antibiotics.<ref name="Fung1996">Fung, M. C.; Bowen, D. L. (1996). "Silver products for medical indications: Risk-benefit assessment". Journal of toxicology. Clinical toxicology. 34 (1): 119–126. doi:10.3109/15563659609020246. PMID 8632503.</ref><ref name="mskcc"/> Since the 1990s, colloidal silver has again been marketed as an alternative medicine, often with extensive "cure-all" claims. Colloidal silver products remain available in many countries as dietary supplements and homeopathic remedies, although they are not effective in treating any known condition and carry the risk of serious side effects such as argyria, allergic reactions, and interactions with prescription medications.<ref name="fda-rule">"Over-the-counter drug products containing colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Public Health Service (PHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Final rule" (PDF). Federal Register. 64 (158): 44653–8. 1999. PMID 10558603. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)</ref><ref name=nccam>"Colloidal Silver Products". National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. February 2012 [First published 2004]. Retrieved January 2013. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)</ref>

Would paraphrasing this lede slightly provide sufficient non-conflicting information for this article? Desoto10 (talk) 01:53, 5 March 2013 (UTC)

Folklore

Large parts of this section seem to be copied directly from [this tvtropes article http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SilverHasMysticPowers] and are quite clearly written in the parlance of the site. The section has already been tagged as "citation needed", but it's also in dire need of some encyclopaedification. D4g0thur 02:34, 9 April 2013 (UTC)

Price of Silver section

The Price section should be cleaned up. The price section now contains on religion & first born stuff. While this may be something that silver is used for it is extraneous information that is off topic for the section it is in. Perhaps a Silver & religion article would be less disorganized. (Gccoe (talk) 14:33, 12 September 2013 (UTC))

It seems more like a use and valuation of silver than a pricing system. Create a new section above, where the other uses of silver are found and start a religious use one, or merge it into one of the existing ones.--☾Loriendrew☽ ☏(talk) 15:43, 12 September 2013 (UTC)

New Edit to Price Section (ref to Hunt Brothers)

{{editsemiprotected}} Under the 'Price' section there is the sentence:

'In 1980 the silver price rose to an all-time high of US$49.45 per troy ounce (T.O.) due to market manipulation[dubious – discuss].'

The manipulation by the Hunt Brothers is well documented. I suggest an edit to:

In 1980 the silver price rose to an all-time high of US$49.45 per troy ounce (T.O.) due to market manipulation by the Nelson Bunker Hunt. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tom.picking (talk • contribs)

• You'll need to provide us with a reference to a reliable source that directly says the price rose due to market manipulation by Hunt Bros. ⇦REDVƎRS⇨ 09:56, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

This would do: [2] --Stone (talk) 12:32, 3 July 2010 (UTC)

There was no market manipulation in 1980. Silver was up because dollar temporary lost its reserve currency status. There are 1.2 million tones of silver above ground. How could Hunt brothers corner it by buying only 3,000 tones of silver? Warren Buffet bought 200,000,000 ounces of silver in 1997 (2 times more than Hunt brothers) but price of silver didn't change. Please remove reference to Hunt brothers manipulation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.53.147.141 (talk) 22:22, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

The Hunt brothers bought futures contracts above and beyond their physical purchases, this is called leverage, as the price rose the value of their contracts rose and they parlayed that into more contracts, until the exchange and the FED stepped in and forced the price back down. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.74.131.178 (talk) 06:23, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

The price of silver did rise slightly in 1997 when Warren bought that amount. I agree that the increase in 1997 was small, compared to that in 1979 and the January of 1980.

Buffett bought 129.7 million troy oz. of silver in 1997 and 1998. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.29.188.144 (talk) 17:24, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

The price of silver went from USD 5.00 to USD 7.84 and the fell back to USD 5.00. This was from 14/11/1997 to 7/2/1998 and 25/5/1998. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.12.93.74 (talk) 15:00, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

See Silver Thursday. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.58.65.119 (talk) 15:30, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Silver as a Food additive in the USA (Use in food)

Regarding the closing [citation needed]

A quick well-tailored google search pulled up a document from the FDA which stated that a silver nitrate and hydrogen peroxide solution is approved for use in bottled water as an antimicrobial (obviously in minute quantities). The only other FDA-approved use I could find anywhere was for it's use in cosmetics as a coloring (fingernail polish, not exceeding 1%). I don't know whether this is worth digging into, but I don't plan on adding this myself as I don't know a whole lot about the subject but I thought it might be worth mentioning if anyone does. Parasprite (talk) 21:00, 14 December 2013 (UTC)

They still make those tiny silver-played sugar balls for decorating cupcakes, don't they? --Guy Macon (talk) 17:07, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

Yes. See Silver#Use in food Plantsurfer 17:09, 19 July 2015 (UTC)

It's all Greek and Roll to me

I'm all for the inclusion of information but (a) people who are curious for the Greek translation of silver can go to Wiktionary or click the Greek link in the left column already; (b) we only list relevant foreign names in English articles and the modern Greek word and its modern Greek transliteration certainly don't count; (c) even the ancient Greek form—where upsilon is transliterated y—is entirely beside the point: the symbol Ag came from its Latin name and only its Latin name. We need to keep WP:LEAD sections terse and informative, especially the WP:FIRSTSENTENCE. The PIE (≠"Indo-European") is already probably too much but is at least slightly informative as to where the Latin name came from. — LlywelynII 07:33, 8 February 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on Silver. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Corrected formatting/usage for http://metallicoin.com/series.php?c=USA&d=0.50
• Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.utilisegold.com/jewellery_technology/colours/colour_alloys

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 23:22, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

Question

“Reaching a peak production of 200 t per year, an estimated silver stock of 10,000 t circulated in the Roman economy in the middle of the second century AD, five to ten times larger than the combined amount of silver available to medieval Europe and the Caliphate around 800 AD.” So, most of that silver ended up in China, right? Is there a source to trace the destiny of all this silver? Eight or nine kilotons of silver travelled through the Silk Route by those six centuries? Just this is a very curious question, and I don't believe that a large portion of that silver could just be lost or transformed. I think that the answer, is available, should be put into the article beside the quote. Thanks. - 91.122.6.219 (talk) 19:31, 11 June 2016 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Silver/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Jclemens (talk · contribs) 02:42, 27 April 2017 (UTC)

Rate	Attribute	Review Comment
1. Well-written:
	1a. the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct.	Fine
	1b. it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.	Fine
2. Verifiable with no original research:
	2a. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline.	A few comments, but citations appear appropriate.
	2b. reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose).	Things are looking good, no dead links, but a few references appear to be bare links which could use better citations.
	2c. it contains no original research.	None noted
	2d. it contains no copyright violations or plagiarism.	All three things identified by Earwig's tool appear to be mirrors.
3. Broad in its coverage:
	3a. it addresses the main aspects of the topic.	Sufficiently broad
	3b. it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).	Appropriately focused
	4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.	No neutrality issues noted.
	5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.	No edit war seen. Vandalism level seems par for an article of this prominence.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:
	6a. media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content.	All freely licensed.
	6b. media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.	Good, appropriate assortment of images.
	7. Overall assessment.	Really good, really close, just needs a ... wait for it... bit of polish. Then you're golden. Or should I say sterling? Passed per improvements.

Jclemens' Good Article Review expectations for Vital Articles.

• This is a vital article. As such, it requires an appropriate amount of scrutiny, because being wrong is just that much worse, so being right is just that much more important.
• This is a collaborative process. I offer suggestions, which editors are free to implement, ignore, reject, or propose counter-suggestions. If there's simply no meeting of the minds, there will be no GA pass from me, but please feel free to tell me to take a flying leap if I propose something stupid or counterproductive.
• I do not quick fail vital article GA reviews. In general, even if there is no clear path to meet all the GA criteria, working with conscientious editors is almost always going to improve the article and benefit our readers--just not to the extent all of us had hoped.
• This is not a quick process. Estimate a month, depending on my availability and the responsiveness of the nominator and other editors collaborating on the process.
• I am not a content expert. I generally have a reasonable background in the topic under consideration, often at the college undergraduate/survey level, or else I wouldn't have volunteered to review it. Thus, I depend on the content experts to help focus the article appropriately.
• The more the merrier. While many unimportant GA articles can be adequately reviewed by a single nominator and a single reviewer, Vital Article GA's can use more eyes, based on their increased importance. I always welcome other editors to jump in with suggestions and constructive criticisms.

Initial read-through

Lead

• "Silver metal is used in many premodern monetary systems" is? was? It's surely still used in coinage somewhere, but I wouldn't call those pre-modern systems.
  • Pure silver metal, to my knowledge, is basically a premodern thing outside special bullion coins; I would agree that silver alloys shouldn't be called a "premodern" use because they were in use till quite recently, though I don't think there are any left now. Anyway I think this is probably too much detail for the lede, so I've cut it to just say that Ag is used in bullion coins (it's one of those four metals to have a currency code, along with Au, Pt, and Pd). Double sharp (talk) 15:26, 4 May 2017 (UTC)
• "Silver is used in numerous applications other than currency, such as solar panels, water filtration, jewellery, ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils (hence the term silverware), and as an investment medium (coins and bullion)." Of all of these, water filtration is not a specific item, while everything else in this list is. That may be OK, but do you want to tighten that up? Jclemens (talk) 05:43, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Characteristics

• No comments. Jclemens (talk) 05:43, 2 May 2017 (UTC)

Chemistry

• "Silver artifacts undergo three forms of deterioration" Specify them more explicitly? Note that in the "Silver does not react with air" paragraph, above, Silver Sulfide tarnish is already mentioned. Do we need to mention it in two places? Jclemens (talk) 05:43, 2 May 2017 (UTC)
  • Hopefully improved now, just giving it a cursory mention as tarnishing. Double sharp (talk) 15:30, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Compounds

• Everything seems to parse fine, but the chemistry is such that I would be unable to spot a non-glaring error. Jclemens (talk) 02:37, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
  • Well, as long as the average interested reader can get something out of it, I think it's as much of a success as we can expect! ^_^ I wrote this section a while before the rest of the article (since the previous chemistry section which it replaced was not really up to snuff), so I could go give my sources another quick read-through to see if I've messed up anything in the paraphrasing and summarisation of important information. Double sharp (talk) 15:57, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Etymology

• Does this need to be its own section? Jclemens (talk) 02:37, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
  • I'm not sure if having it be its own section is a good idea either, but I'm not sure if it fits particularly well in any of the existing ones; do you have a suggestion for it? Double sharp (talk) 13:59, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

History

• Again, with a secular article do you prefer BC/AD or BCE/CE? It's consistent now, so not an issue, just a question.
  • I personally prefer BC/AD as being more easily distinguishable, and it tends to draw less attention to itself for me. Double sharp (talk) 14:29, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
• "The origins of silver production in India, China, and Japan was almost certainly equally ancient," Was? Were?
  •  Done Double sharp (talk) 14:29, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
• The New World technology doesn't appear to be chronological. Should it be?
• Is 'plundering' NPOV?
• "and Argentina:;" Pick a punctuation. Either works, probably, but not both... Jclemens (talk) 02:37, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
  •  Done Double sharp (talk) 14:29, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Symbolic Role

• Dunno that Greek really needs to be wikilinked.
  •  Done Double sharp (talk) 14:31, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
• I think 'religious' leaders is unnecessarily 'safe': the allegation is that Judas Iscariot, a Jew, was paid 30 pieces of silver by Jewish leaders to betray Jesus of Nazareth, another Jew.
  •  Done Double sharp (talk) 14:31, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
• I am fine with the Hebrew scripture quotations. Be prepared for someone to come along and object for no good reason whatsoever, though. Jclemens (talk) 02:55, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
  • When I put them in (since Weeks includes them) I was mentally preparing myself for another Fe situation. ^_^ Double sharp (talk) 14:31, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Occurrence and production

• How do the first sentences of the first and third paragraphs related to each other? They seen redundant, describing silver's combination with sulfur in nature.
• Compared to what Iron had, there doesn't appear to be a lot about the process of production. Jclemens (talk) 02:55, 3 May 2017 (UTC)
  • What I was going for here is that the first paragraph describes minerals containing primarily Ag; but these are too sparse now to serve as useful sources, so the rest of the section describes instead the current sources, which have Ag as a secondary constituent. Because true silver ores are not really exploited today (too little of that) there is naturally not as much about production as there is for Fe. Most of the Ag produced from ores of base metals like Cu, Pb, and Zn follows the production of those metals until the electrolytic steps covered in the article (which uses Cu as the example), so the stuff before that isn't really focused on Ag and varies quite widely depending on which metal is being followed. I will try to tighten this to make it clearer, hopefully by tomorrow. Double sharp (talk) 15:10, 3 May 2017 (UTC)

Applications

• Earliest, or earliest known coin? There's also the 'western world' qualifier, but nothing about Eastern coinage is included in the subsection. Also, shouldn't western be capitalized?
• Do we have any numbers on the ratio of jewellery to coinage in silver usage?
• How does silver polish work chemically? Does it just remove the surface layer?
• For the urinary catheter and VAP references, I'd recommend putting them with their specific clauses, rather than together at the end of the paragraph, even though it's quite clear by title which refers to which.
• Is anyone actually still making vacuum tubes? The tense implies so.
  • Yes, but mostly for restoration of vintage equipment. Since this is essentially a historical application now I've changed the tense for it. Double sharp (talk) 15:32, 4 May 2017 (UTC)
• Nanoparticles has a clause on the inability of bacteria to develop resistance to silver that is likely more interesting to and appropriately placed with the medical uses section. Jclemens (talk) 02:16, 4 May 2017 (UTC)
  • I've moved the clause. Double sharp (talk) 15:50, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Precautions

• The explosive notes seem redundant to the discussion in 'other inorganic particles'. Having it in two places won't necessarily be bad, of course... Jclemens (talk) 02:16, 4 May 2017 (UTC)
  • Yeah, I wondered about that for a while. The trouble I find is that both sections feel slightly incomplete without the explosive notes: like it or not, explosion is kind of the signature reaction of these compounds (the silver azide article has the hilarious line "In its most characteristic reaction, the solid decomposes explosively"), and it is quite evidently something that one needs to be wary of. For that reason I rather like the near-duplication, since the first mention focuses on the chemistry of what happens, and the mention in "Precautions" focuses on how to stop it from happening in the first place. ^_^ Double sharp (talk) 15:47, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Second Look

None of the outstanding issues/ideas/comments are sufficient to deny a GA for this article at this point. Congratulations! Jclemens (talk) 19:04, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Thank you, though I shall still go through the remaining ones to get it even better! ^_^ Double sharp (talk) 01:45, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Silver

Where did the word come from??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 210.23.80.173 (talk) 22:19, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

There is something about the Latin and Greek words for silver in the article, but very little about the Teutonic word "silver". I think you will find that it appears in all Teutonic languages with regular sound laws. It seems to be unrelated to the above two mentioned. — Preceding unsigned comment added by MissouriOzark1947 (talk • contribs) 11:52, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

This is a very old borrowing of unknown provenance, possibly Akkadian sarpu. It is not only the source of all the Germanic words for Ag, but also the Slavic ones (e.g. Polish srebro, Russian серебро). Double sharp (talk) 08:24, 8 August 2016 (UTC)

MarnetteD and Materialscientist please comment on this

why's this edit being deleted?

Silver nano particles have been shown to react with stomach acid producing the toxic salt silver chloride. Silver has been shown to negatively effect glutathione in mammals.

Well, for starters, because people not signing their posts and using references on talk pages are disliked in general. The misuse of "effect" probably also has something to do with it. — LlywelynII 07:34, 8 February 2016 (UTC)

Llywelyn - I got a reprimand for making unsourced comments on the talk pages. Jokem (talk) 23:31, 7 July 2018 (UTC)

Silver as synonym for money

Apologies if I have missed this, but is it not worthy of mention in the article that in some languages the word for "silver" is actually used as the term for money itself (e.g., French, "de l'argent"), much as in other languages, the term for "gold" (with slight modifications) is used as the term for money (e.g., German "gelt")?--Partnerfrance (talk) 12:17, 12 March 2019 (UTC)

Units for density?

I came here looking for the density of silver. Does it really make sense to list it as g/cm³?

I get that it is equivalent to kg/dm³ (i.e. kg/l) and t/m³ (1000 kg/m³) and mg/mm³, but those units have a better divisors for calculations (except for maybe kg/dm³, which then again is very useful for liquids). Even though cm³ is a very relatable size because cm is very practical in normal, day-to-day usage, cm is still a bit of an in-between unit and can be a bit unwealdy for calculations because of the exponent -2 in its prefix, making mm³ slightly better (though also less relatable) in this regard. Would it make sense for the infobox to also list the densities as 1000 kg/m³ (or t/m³), kg/dm³ (kg/l) and/or mg/mm³? — 84.248.218.89 (talk) 08:14, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

Grams per cubic cm is standard nomenclature. Anyone familiar with the metric system will realize the equivalents you mention without having to spell them out in the article. Plazak (talk) 17:12, 7 May 2019 (UTC)

Reference 91 feels like a link to sell and is not informative

Inline as of this writing, the article reads "In 2015 China reverted to the metric system and currently prices silver (and gold) in grams.[91][92]" -- reference 92 links to a legitimate source of information about this topic, however reference 91 is a link to a silver seller website with no value (and it's selling a lot of silver in troy ounces, which is rather the opposite of the point trying to be made). I believe reference 91 is link spam intended to drive business from Wikipedia to a vendor website, not as an informative source of information. troyengel (talk) 19:10, 8 June 2019 (UTC)

Indeed. Removed. -DePiep (talk) 12:12, 13 June 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 September 2019

<! st ABOVE this line and do not remove the tildes and curly brackets below. --> 167.98.94.147 (talk) 08:25, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. NiciVampireHeart 08:31, 17 September 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 16 November 2020

1. In the introduction, "silverware" ought to be placed in quotation marks, since the article is talking about the word itself, not merely the things to which the word refers.
2. bullet cast from silver should be changed to bullet cast from silver, since "silver bullet" is more relevant to this passage than merely "bullet" is.

2601:5C6:8081:35C0:2499:DAED:827E:97CA (talk) 18:35, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

 Done — IVORK _Talk 23:03, 16 November 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 November 2020 - Silver in the Marine Environment

Silver in the Marine Environment

In seawater, the concentration of silver is quite low (pmol/L). Levels vary amongst different depths and between water bodies. Dissolved silver concentrations range from 0.3 pmol/L to 22.8 pmol/L, in coastal surface waters and pelagic deep waters, respectfully. Analyzing the presence and dynamics of silver in marine environments is difficult due to these particularly low concentrations and complex interactions in the environment. Although a rare trace metal, sources from fluvial, aeolian, atmospheric, and upwelling inputs, as well as anthropogenic inputs via discharge, waste disposal, and emissions from industrial companies greatly impact concentrations. Other internal processes such as decomposition of organic matter may be a source of dissolved silver in deeper waters, which feeds into some surface waters through upwelling and vertical mixing.

A nutrient-like vertical profile in the Atlantic and Pacific demonstrate minimal surface concentrations, but supplementation in deeper waters. Silver is taken up by plankton in the photic zone, remobilized with depth, and enriched in deep waters. In the Atlantic, this element is then conservatively transported to the other oceanic water masses. In North Pacific waters, silver remains a nutrient-type profile, but is remobilized at a slower rate and increasingly enriched compared to deep Atlantic waters. Silver has increasing concentrations that follow the major oceanic conveyor belt that cycles water and nutrients from the North Atlantic to the South Atlantic to the North Pacific.

There is not an extensive amount of data focused on how marine life is affected by silver despite the likely deleterious effects it could have on organisms through bioaccumulation, association with particulate matters, and sorption. It wasn’t until about 1984 when scientists started understanding the chemical characteristics of silver and the toxicity effects that potentially occur when increased concentrations are present. In fact, mercury is the only other trace metal that surpasses the toxic effects of silver; however, the full extent of toxicity of silver is not expected in oceanic conditions because of its ability to transfer into nonreactive biological compounds.

In one study, the presence of excess ionic silver and silver nanoparticles caused bioaccumulation effects on zebrafish organs and altered the chemical pathways within their gills. In addition, there are very early experimental studies that demonstrated how the toxic effects of silver fluctuate with salinity and other parameters, as well as between life stages and different species such as finfish, mollusks, and crustaceans. Finally, another study found raised concentrations of silver in the muscles and liver of cetaceans indicating pollution of this metal within recent decades. Silver is overall not an easy metal for an organism to eliminate and elevated concentrations can unfortunately result in fatality.

References

JaxDolphins (talk) 21:19, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

@JaxDolphins:  Not done for now: please specify what has to be done. You must reopen the request by changing |answered= parameter from yes to no after specifying. -ink&fables «talk» 10:38, 22 November 2020 (UTC)

Would like to add the above sections about silver in the marine environment and in marine species as paragraphs under a new header called "Silver in the Marine Environment". Sorry, I am new to wikipedia and am not sure if I am responding to the above edit request correctly. I changed it to {{edit semi-protected|Silver|answered=no}} Thank you.

JaxDolphins (talk) 20:45, 23 November 2020 (UTC)

 Done, with some copyedits. Thanks for the detailed contribution, JaxDolphins. Adrian J. Hunter^{(talk•contribs)} 13:28, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 28 November 2020

I would like to submit a request to add the additional information below regarding Silver found in the ocean under the occurrence section.

Differences in Ag sediments found in the ocean are possibly related to the biogenic and/or scavenged flux to the sediment. Since Ag and Ba are similar, observations conclude that Ag may be supplemented with decaying organic particles as they settle in the ocean, (McKay et. al., 2008). In the Pacific Ocean, Ag concentration and dissolved silicic acid concentration are strongly related. However, Ag is exhausted at medium depths where there is low concentrations of dissolved O2, suggesting Ag is removed from oxygen-depleted waters by scavenging and/or precipitation, (Kramer et. al., 2011). Several vertical profiles confirm that silver is distributed within the water column as a nutrient‐type element and is more noticeable in the Pacific than it is in the Atlantic. Silver was again associated with dissolved silica, but fluctuated between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, implying that silver is slower to remobilize in the deep Pacific than in the deep Atlantic or refractory silver is being advected from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Additionally, silver was also positively, but inconsistently, linked with copper, confirming that Ag:Cu ratios can be used as geochemical tracer of water masses. Silver concentrations in the ocean were up to 12 pM in surface waters and were the highest measured in the ocean, in intermediate waters (2400–2500 m) silver measurements were (e.g., 88 pM) were estimated to be four‐fold greater than (e.g., 23 pM) previously measured in eastern North Pacific waters [Martin et al., 1983]. This increase in silver concentrations in the North Pacific is tentatively credited to the increase in Asian industrial emissions and their absorption into the water column. It is proposed those discharges have increased levels in silver in surface waters as much as 50‐fold above theoretical background values. If confirmed, this development proves that a large anthropogenic perturbation of the ocean biogeochemical cycling of silver is occurring, and that silver is one of the most (if not the most) polluted elements in the World Ocean, (Ranville, 2005). Vertical profiles of total dissolved silver concentrations in the equatorial and southwest Atlantic Ocean provide a different perspective on the processes influencing the element's external fluxes and internal biogeochemical cycling in the ocean. Natural and/or industrial aerosols from the atmosphere appear to raise silver concentrations in South Atlantic surface waters, where silver is scavenged onto and/or bioaccumulated by plankton. The remobilization of silver with depth is comparative with silicate, indicating much of that silver is separated within a refractory organic phase correlated with biogenic silica. Silver is then remineralized, and then carried in subsurface water quantities throughout the ocean, (Ndung’u et. al., 2001).

Silver is a recycled element with low concentrations in surface waters and high concentrations in deep waters (4600 m) of the Atlantic, which is a systematic enrichment of silver in deep waters from the North Atlantic to the North Pacific. This nutrient-type distribution is also demonstrated by the highly significant (p < 0.01, simple linear regression) correlation (R ≥ 0.916) of silver and silicate concentrations in both the North Pacific and eastern Atlantic, (Flegal, 1995). Giada83 (talk) 18:38, 28 November 2020 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. JavaHurricane 16:30, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

Re etymology

Useful Language Log post. Double sharp (talk) 14:10, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 April 2021

There is a typo in the Characteristics section, where it says "Silver is rarely used for its electrical condictivity due to its high cost..." "conductivity" has been misspelled. 67.42.187.195 (talk) 17:23, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

 Done RudolfRed (talk) 17:31, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

History Section: Use of silver as "primitive money"

The History section of this article makes the following claim:

"In particular, the three metals of group 11, copper, silver, and gold, occur in the elemental form in nature and were probably used as the first primitive forms of money as opposed to simple bartering."

The supporting citation is a passage from Greenwood and Earnshaw, Chemistry of the elements which states:

"Collectively known as the 'coinage metals' because of their former usage, these elements were almost certainly the first three metals known to man. All of them occur in the elemental, or 'native', form and must have been used as primitive money long before the introduction of gold coins in Egypt around 3400 BC."

The claim that these metals "must have been used as primitive money" is vague and largely unsubstantiated in both the article and the citation. It seems to suggest that silver's primary use to most prehistoric cultures was monetary, stemming from the fact that it "occur[s] in the elemental form in nature." However there isn't enough evidence provided to support this. Also of issue is the framing of "primitive forms of money" as something "opposed to simple bartering," a position that I did not find mentioned in the cited source.

The article goes on to state that "silver did not lead to the growth of metallurgy on account of its low structural strength, and was more often used ornamentally or as money." While the source cited in this passage does make several mentions of silver's low structural strength and ornamental use, it does not refer to any prehistoric cultures using silver as a form of currency.

Perhaps this portion of the article should be re-written to remove the claim in question. Additional citations may be needed to summarize the significance of silver to prehistoric cultures as a form of currency. However, the issue seems primarily theoretical and I question the relevance to this particular article. It might be helpful to link to another article that discusses "primitive money" more specifically, such as History of money, further down under the "Monetary use" section.

Admittedly this is a lot of attention to give such a relatively small detail, but it stood out to me as requiring at least some discussion or consideration given it's prominent placement at the beginning of the History section. Apologies if I've overlooked any standard practices, I'm relatively new to contributing.

Rreennaann (talk) 22:43, 27 March 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 25 April 2021

There is a typo in the Characteristics section, where it says "Silver is rarely used for its electrical condictivity due to its high cost..." "conductivity" has been misspelled. 67.42.187.195 (talk) 17:23, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

 Done RudolfRed (talk) 17:31, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

History Section: Use of silver as "primitive money"

The History section of this article makes the following claim:

"In particular, the three metals of group 11, copper, silver, and gold, occur in the elemental form in nature and were probably used as the first primitive forms of money as opposed to simple bartering."

The supporting citation is a passage from Greenwood and Earnshaw, Chemistry of the elements which states:

"Collectively known as the 'coinage metals' because of their former usage, these elements were almost certainly the first three metals known to man. All of them occur in the elemental, or 'native', form and must have been used as primitive money long before the introduction of gold coins in Egypt around 3400 BC."

The claim that these metals "must have been used as primitive money" is vague and largely unsubstantiated in both the article and the citation. It seems to suggest that silver's primary use to most prehistoric cultures was monetary, stemming from the fact that it "occur[s] in the elemental form in nature." However there isn't enough evidence provided to support this. Also of issue is the framing of "primitive forms of money" as something "opposed to simple bartering," a position that I did not find mentioned in the cited source.

The article goes on to state that "silver did not lead to the growth of metallurgy on account of its low structural strength, and was more often used ornamentally or as money." While the source cited in this passage does make several mentions of silver's low structural strength and ornamental use, it does not refer to any prehistoric cultures using silver as a form of currency.

Perhaps this portion of the article should be re-written to remove the claim in question. Additional citations may be needed to summarize the significance of silver to prehistoric cultures as a form of currency. However, the issue seems primarily theoretical and I question the relevance to this particular article. It might be helpful to link to another article that discusses "primitive money" more specifically, such as History of money, further down under the "Monetary use" section.

Admittedly this is a lot of attention to give such a relatively small detail, but it stood out to me as requiring at least some discussion or consideration given it's prominent placement at the beginning of the History section. Apologies if I've overlooked any standard practices, I'm relatively new to contributing.

Rreennaann (talk) 22:43, 27 March 2022 (UTC)

Re photo captioned "17th century silver cutlery"

There is a photo about halfway through the article of various silver plates/platters, goblets/tankards and other serving bowl-type items, presumably to illustrate the idea of "silverware". Given that there are no actual eating implements of any kind in this picture, can the objects pictured accurately be labeled as "cutlery"? I would assert that they cannot. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.8.181.93 (talk) 00:58, 29 March 2022 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 6 December 2022

There are no mines in Salzburg. There in Schwaz. 83.175.71.214 (talk) 15:11, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Fixed. Vsmith (talk) 18:32, 6 December 2022 (UTC)

Silver Valley, Idaho

How is Silver Valley, Idaho the world’s largest silver contributor, not mentioned? 2001:5B0:2D1F:DE88:E529:5F63:E4CB:4A00 (talk) 03:09, 8 January 2023 (UTC)

I think I didn't that I aded the text "Silver Valley, (in) Idaho is the world’s largest silver contributor." I only added the text "Silver is a naturally occurring element. It is found in the environment combined with other elements such as sulfide, chloride, and nitrate. Pure silver is “silver” colored, but silver nitrate and silver chloride are powdery white and silver sul­ fide and silver oxide are dark-gray to black. Silver is often found as a by-product during the retrieval of copper, lead, zinc, and gold ores. " that I found on https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts146.pdf Elfling1979 (talk) 14:57, 16 May 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 October 2023

Top 6 Production Stage Silver Mines (2011) !Mine !Country !2010 Production !2020 Production Research111 (talk) 09:18, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. NotAGenious (talk) 15:32, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

References