Museum area 7
ITS ORIGIN
Silver is among all metals the best heat and electricity conductor. It has been known from the anciient times. Its Latin name is "Argentum3, which comes from the Greek word "Argos", meaning clear, shiny.
Silver, the object of everyone's desire...
It was commonly used to strike the currencies. Silver is sensitive to light, and silver salts are used to manufacture photographic films.
Its typical metallic aspect is white and shiny. Silver oxidizes when it comes into contact with air and in presence of even the least sulphurous hydrogen or ozone traces
It then becomes covered with a brownish patina as a result of sulphide and oxide formation. Soft but also very dense ( 1 cm3 weighs approximately 10.5g ) silver is malleable and can be worked easily to make wire and very thin sheets. Moreover, it is an excellent heat and electricity conductor. Its capacity of reflection is very high: a perfectly polished silver foil can reflect more than 90% of the light it receives..
SAINTE - MARIE - AUX- MINES: AN UNDERGROUND treasure
The main producer used to be Mexico. It supplied Europe since the Spanish conquest. Nowadays, the most beautiful specimen come from the American continent : Mexico, Peru, the United States and Canada. In France, fine quality silver samplles have been discovered since the XVIth century, and to this day some in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines. Discoveries are sometimes very surprising, and some samples can reach up to several hundred kilogrammes. Lately, they discovered a mass of earth covered with moss which apparently had been carried along by a block of ice back to the ice age. Its weight was estimated to about 1 640 pounds. It contained more than 300 kg of silver.
