The Coolest Facts About Silver You May Not Know

Interest in silver investing has skyrocketed in recent years. One of the many factors causing this was the increased demand during the pandemic. There were plenty of prior signs, though, that this was on the horizon. Of course, this is hardly the most interesting fact about silver.

If your interest in the white metal stops at buying silver bullion, these facts might not appeal to you much. When you ask most experts, though, they’ll agree that you should know what you’re investing in. While most of these facts won’t affect the value, they’ll certainly increase your knowledge base.

At Silver Gold Bull, our goal is to ensure each of our clients is as informed about their investment as possible. Of course, it’s also fun to toss out some cool facts about silver periodically. Check out these interesting tidbits!

The First Coins in History Contained Silver

There’s plenty of rare and vintage silver items out there to enjoy, but few people realize just how rare and vintage the white metal can get. In fact, the first coins used in currency were silver ingots over 4,000 years ago. Of course, few people would view ingots as coins.

Luckily for silver, this is far from where their history ends. Over 1,000 years after silver ingots first entered commerce, the first coinage contained a metal known as Electrum. This is an alloy that contains both gold and silver, and separating the two at the time was difficult.

Not long after minted coins became widespread, the silver Athenian tetradrachm became the first “international standard currency” in use around the Mediterranean. When it comes to historic coinage, no precious metal outshines silver.

There’s an Entire Reddit Community for Silver Investment

This cool fact about silver exists solely because so many people think the precious metal is cool. If you head over to Reddit, there’s an entire community known as r/WallStreetSilver dedicated to investing in this bullion. In fact, the community was integral during the “silver raid” of 2021.

With over 125,000 members in the group as of July 2021, Wall Street Silver is one of the largest investment “subs” on the platform. Their goal? For silver to return to a fair and accurate value. The group believes silver remains undervalued, and with a gold/silver ratio at historic highs, they might be right.

The community has become so integral in the precious metals world that they even have their own WallStreetSilver bullion bar. Featuring 10 ounces of .999 pure silver, the iconic “ape,” and the hashtag #SilverSqueeze, it perfectly embodies the rush for the precious metal in 2021.

Let It Rain Silver Fact: Silver Might Literally Make It Rain

Pretend for a moment that there’s only one item on this list that you didn’t already know. It would probably be this: silver might be able to control the weather. While this may sound like something out of a science fiction film, it’s an actual process experts are trying today.

Several states utilize silver iodide particles in cloud seeding. This is a process that attempts to increase rainfall by dispersing particles into the clouds. Water apparently attaches to these small silver particles and freezes. Once it gets too heavy, the water falls and returns to earth.

The growing threat of megadrought in the American West has experts scrambling for a solution. If they’re lucky, they might just find that solution in silver. There is still some debate over whether the process works, but scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research seem to think so.

The Top Demand for Silver Comes from Industry

One of the coolest facts about silver is that people have always thought it was cool. Anyone who looked in their grandmother’s jewelry box, for instance, likely discovered silver necklaces. If they snooped in their grandfather’s stuff, though, they might be more likely to discover silver coins.

While both jewelry and coinage make up a large part of silver’s usage, they’re far from the top consumer. In fact, industrial fabrication uses up more of the precious metal than all other uses combined. You’ll find everyone’s favorite white metal used in solar panels, automobiles and even soldering.

The industrial uses of silver make the metal particularly unique. While gold often excels during periods of economic instability — as does silver — its metallic counterpart can perform well during economic booms as well. That’s because great economies lead to more manufacturing.

So while gold may be more expensive than silver, it’s not necessarily a better investment.

The Golden Fact About Silver: It’s Outperformed Gold

There’s no question that gold holds more value than silver — at least as of July 2021 — and at least for price-per-ounce. As we just discussed, though, this doesn’t necessarily make it a better investment. More important than value is your return on investment, and silver might just win there.

No one is going to tell you that silver always outperforms gold. Throughout 2020 and 2021, we were inundated with articles promising the white metal would dwarf its golden counterpart. By the end of 2020, these predictions had come to fruition.

While gold may be more valuable, it would’ve been wiser to invest $1,000 in silver rather than gold in 2020. Don’t get excited about the possibility of silver surpassing gold’s price — although both platinum and palladium have before — but a massive return on investment is surely a cool fact about silver.

You Can Find Silver in Pocket Change

If free money makes up the coolest fact about silver, then Americans are in luck. Prior to 1965, many coins in circulation contained high levels of silver. An otherwise normal Washington quarter from 1964, for instance, contains 0.18084 troy ounces of the precious metal.

Such a high silver content means 90% of the coin was produced from the metal. This makes any Washington quarter dated before 1965 worth far more than its face value. The following coins are those that fall into the category of “highly collectible due to intrinsic value”:

• Washington Quarters, pre-1965
• Roosevelt and Mercury Dimes, pre-1965
• Kennedy Half Dollar, 1964
• Kennedy Half Dollar, 1965-1970
• Jefferson Nickel, 1942-1945

If you take any major fact about silver away from this guide, though, it should be that not all these coins are equal. Jefferson nickels and the later Kennedy Halves, for instance, don’t contain 90% silver like the others. Even with this being the case, though, they still hold far more value than their modern counterparts.

Unfortunately, more and more of these coins are finding their way to collections or even refineries. But if you can keep a keen eye, you might just find a nice silver investment right in your pocket change.

Many Believe Silver Has Supernatural Properties

When listing out the coolest facts about silver, how could anyone forget to mention that it kills werewolves? There may be some debate over the existence of these creatures — not so much, actually — but many people throughout history felt silver held supernatural properties.

Throughout the millennia, silver has been used in everything from creating healing water to keeping demons at bay. In fact, many believed that using the precious metal to make mirrors — rather than glass — was the only way to avoid opening a gateway for evil.

Even if you don’t buy into all the supernatural properties, these beliefs are no doubt one of the coolest facts about silver. And in case you want to stay on the safe side — just in case — you can buy silver bullets online to deal with any potential were-creatures that set their eyes on you for lunch.

Ancient Egyptians Valued Silver More Than Gold

If you were to inspect tombs from Ancient Egypt, you’d notice a shortage of silver. This makes sense for a few reasons. To start, there weren’t many geological sources to speak of in the country. Additionally, the metal would have corroded in most burial environments at the time.

From all the data we have, though, it seems the white metal was more valued than gold. Who knows what Ancient Egyptians would’ve called the coolest fact about silver, but they certainly would’ve told you it was amazing. Unfortunately, they had to import most of their supply.

Luckily, there’s still plenty to enjoy in the cultural record. Egyptian silver items dating back to 2000 B.C.E are available to view in the Metropolitan Museum. And while the modern country isn’t well known for its silver coins, you can find Egyptian bullion bars online featuring hieroglyphics and ancient gods.

Best Fact About Silver? It’s a Great Investment!

Silver has remained an interesting element throughout human history. Even now that regulations and financial markets are heavily involved, there’s still plenty of unique and fun facts about the white metal. The coolest fact about silver of them all, however, is that it’s a great investment!

At Silver Gold Bull, we are extremely interested in precious metals because they are extremely interesting. If you’re ready to take your love for silver beyond “cool tidbit” and into the “great investment” arena, visit our Precious Metals Bullion page today.

The coolest fact about silver might just be how many investment options there are!