Why do we value silver?
Why do we value silver? Why did the ancients value silver? Are the reasons the same?
There is a really interesting question about human behavior as we look into why we value silver, we being the collective we as many of our individual reasons are different. It would be challenging to sufficiently argue that we as humans have not changed as a society and culture over the past couple thousand years but what I find interesting is our behaviors as a specie tend to be the same and this question of “why we value silver” is a great representation of this.
The reason I ask this question is that I saw the chart below in a news article. Notice how silver is mostly a bi-product of other materials being mined. This makes me think that as a business standard, other materials are much more lucrative than silver yet we perceive silver to be one of the best financial instruments. Why is that?
In ancient times, as many of us know, Silver was valued but maybe not in the ways that you are thinking. Before the world developed currency for the trade of goods, anything could be used to trade goods. Asian nations often used silk for example. My research indicates silver became valued first as an aesthetic. It was easily smelted and with the softness of the metal, it could be manipulated easily and polished to a very high shine.
In this fashion it was used to adorn clothing, create jewelry, make figurines and ritual objects as well as a form of wealth in a less refined version known as hacksilver. Many cultures started with silver being only approved by nobility and for diplomatic trade which caused silver to create haves and have nots between their own cultures and other countries.
Silver ore usually is less than 1% silver but it was very easy to find in many areas and the smelting process is not as rigorous as other metals, so it became a lucrative business. Even natives of the Americas mined and smelted silver using crucibles over a fire heated by charcoal or with tubes to blowing the embers to optimal temperature.
All over the world silver held footing with the highest levels of society. This was one of the elements that divided the working class with the ruling class. This was evident in the pre-coin era. The question we must raise is why did we as a specie find it valuable. We know humans are unique as being one of the only creations that can assess value but our association with value and money being synonymous is one of the logical fallacies of our downfall.
In ancient times, the correlation of silver value was in vanity as it was used as a separator of people and something to embellish you in the eyes of your guests. It was not to be stored or hidden but rather to be worn or displayed in a way that could impress those in your presence. This is the equivalent of being envious of lifestyles of the rich and famous. We as humans have not changed in our perception that wealth equals some level of happiness as it is portrayed in film, media, music, and advertising even though statistics would say that most of your areas of celebrity struggle with substance abuse, depression, and suicide at a far higher rate than the average person.
This is easily understood when we talk about another item that was even more valuable than gold or silver in ancient times. If I walked the street in a purple robe in 500 BC, I would be able to sell it and buy armies. We often refer to the color purple as a color of royalty and it was due to the process in which it took to get pigment. The only way in ancient times you could get a purple pigment that would actually stay in clothing was to find one specie of very small snail in the ocean and crush it. This was so labor intensive that the cost of a purple shirt in today’s money would be well over the value of gold!
When technology advanced, the ability to create purple pigments increased and the value of purple was no more than any other color. This is why today we do not hold value in it. We do not see it as something the average person cannot obtain.
The Egyptians give us another great example. Egypt had a great supply of gold but could not find silver, so for a time, Egypt valued silver more than gold. This is a supply and demand issue to a degree but the “why” there was a demand did not have to do with investments but rather so they could impress and fit in with other world dignitaries. We often covet what we see. Wealth was a visual tool of might often times more than a financial one.
Silver eventually found its way onto coins. A notable coin is one of the first Greek coins that hosted a turtle to represent oceanic trade. This was produced because the Greeks needed to pay mercenaries in a way where it was easy for them to carry as they traveled. This is also where a shift of why we value silver forever changed. Instead of silver being visual opulence, it became value of trade for more and more people nations created coins that could be used to trade for goods.
It is here where silver starts to represent the value of perceived goods rather than the adornment of ones person. So have we changed as a specie from our perception of value on silver? Yes and no. We still can look at stacks and stacks of silver bars and feel something guttural as we ponder what if we had possession of that silver because of our perceived value but just like with the purple dye. Societal norms often dictate value more than logic. Maybe this makes me odd or an outlier but it is also the reason I am a collector and not a stacker. When I look at silver coins, my value has nothing to do with the silver as a financial instrument but rather due to its beauty. The images and stories associated with these coins are where the value lies for me. Where does it lie for you?
