Silver · element 47
The best electrical conductor of any element, and the metal that made photography possible
Key facts
Silver has been mined, hoarded and argued over for at least five thousand years. It is soft enough to shape with simple tools, bright enough to work as a mirror, and rare enough to serve as money. For most of recorded history those were its jobs: coins, cutlery, jewellery and ornament.
The modern story is different. Today the largest share of silver goes into industry, not treasure chests. It conducts electricity better than any other element, reflects visible light better than any other metal, and kills bacteria at very low concentrations. Solar panels, switches, circuit boards and hospital dressings all quietly depend on it.
Where it is found
Silver does occur as pure nuggets and wiry masses, and native silver was probably the first form humans encountered. Far more of it is locked up in minerals, especially argentite, a silver sulfide, and in ores of other metals. In practice most new silver is a by-product. When lead, zinc and copper ores are smelted, the silver they contain is recovered during refining.
Mexico, Peru and China are the leading producers, with Poland, Chile, Australia and Russia also significant. The mines of Potosí in what is now Bolivia flooded Europe with silver in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and reshaped the world economy.
How it was discovered
Nobody discovered silver in the modern sense. Slag heaps in Anatolia show that people were separating silver from lead ores by about 3000 BC, using a process called cupellation in which the lead is oxidised away in a blast of air and the silver is left behind. The technique spread through the ancient Mediterranean, and silver coins were being struck in Lydia and Greece by the sixth century BC.
The chemical symbol Ag comes from the Latin argentum, which relates to an older word meaning shining or white. The English word silver has Germanic roots. Argentina takes its name from the Latin word, a reminder of the treasure early explorers hoped to find there.
What we use it for
Electronics is the largest industrial use. Silver paste is printed onto the front of most crystalline silicon solar cells to collect current, and each panel uses a measurable quantity. Silver contacts sit inside switches, keyboards and relays because they resist wear and conduct so well.
For over a century silver was the heart of photography. Light-sensitive silver halide crystals in film and paper darken where light strikes them, and a developer amplifies that image. Digital cameras have shrunk that market, but X-ray film and some specialist uses continue. Silver's antibacterial action is exploited in wound dressings, water filters and coatings on hospital surfaces. Sterling silver, an alloy of 92.5 per cent silver with copper, remains the standard for jewellery and tableware, and investors still hold silver as bars and coins.
Reading the numbers
Silver melts at about 962 °C and boils at roughly 2162 °C. The melting point is lower than that of copper or gold, which made silver comparatively easy to melt and cast in ancient furnaces. With a density of 10.49 grams per cubic centimetre, silver is about ten and a half times as dense as water and about a third denser than iron, though not as heavy as gold or lead.
Its electron configuration is [Kr] 4d10 5s1: a full set of ten d electrons and a single outer s electron. That lone electron is loosely held and moves freely through the metal, which is the physical reason silver conducts heat and electricity so well. It also explains why silver almost always forms compounds in the +1 state. Silver sits in group 11, between copper above and gold below, and shares their reluctance to react with water or dilute acids. Its electronegativity of 1.93 is high for a metal, another sign of its reluctance to give up electrons to other elements.
Safety and the environment
Metallic silver is safe to eat from and wear, and tiny amounts pass through the body without harm. Prolonged exposure to silver compounds can cause argyria, a permanent blue-grey discolouration of the skin, and silver nitrate is corrosive. Colloidal silver sold as a health supplement has no proven benefit and carries this risk.
Silver ions are highly toxic to aquatic organisms, which is partly why they are so effective against bacteria. Runoff from mining and from old photographic processing has contaminated some waterways. The rise of silver nanoparticles in clothing and consumer goods has raised questions about what happens when they wash out into rivers, and researchers are still measuring the effects.
Did you know?
- Silver tarnishes not because of oxygen but because of tiny amounts of hydrogen sulfide in the air, which form a dark layer of silver sulfide.
- Polished silver reflects more visible light than any other metal, which is why it was used to back the earliest glass mirrors.
- Silver iodide crystals are seeded into clouds to encourage rain or snow, because their structure resembles that of ice.
- In French the word for money, argent, is simply the word for silver.
- Silver conducts electricity slightly better than copper, but copper is used for wiring because it is far cheaper.
More in the transition metals
Column-mates come first, since elements in one column have outer electrons arranged in a similar way and tend to behave alike; the rest are the nearest neighbours in the family.
See all 38 transition metals on one page, or browse all 118 elements.
Compare Silver with another element
Each comparison has a side-by-side data table and a plain-English summary of the differences.
Frequently asked questions
Why does silver turn black?
The dark layer on old silver is silver sulfide, formed when the metal reacts with traces of hydrogen sulfide in the air. Eggs, rubber, wool and polluted city air all release small amounts of this gas. Polishing removes the layer, and storing silver in airtight bags slows it down.
Is silver magnetic?
No. Silver is diamagnetic, which means it is very slightly repelled by a magnetic field rather than attracted. A magnet will not stick to genuine silver, and a strong magnet is sometimes used as a quick test, since a piece that clings firmly is not solid silver.
Is silver a better conductor than copper?
Yes, silver is the best electrical and thermal conductor of all the elements, a little ahead of copper. The difference is only a few per cent, and silver costs far more, so copper is used for ordinary wiring. Silver is chosen only where the small gain matters, such as in high frequency circuits and switch contacts.
Is it safe to drink from a silver cup?
Yes. Metallic silver barely dissolves, and the tiny amounts that do enter the body are excreted. Only long-term heavy intake of silver compounds, such as from home-made colloidal silver, causes problems like argyria, a permanent grey-blue skin tint.
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Written by Anthony. Updated September 2026. Numerical data from Periodic-Table-JSON (CC BY-SA), cross-checked against the Silver reference article. Spotted an error? Tell us.