Mineralpedia Details for Silver

Named likely in relation to the Old English word for the metal, soelfer, and closely related to the German and Dutch words for the metal, silber and zilver, respectively. The chemical symbol, Ag, is from the Latin word argentums, where the root word arg-means “grey” or “shining.” Occurs chiefly in the oxidized zone of ore deposits. Widespread. Crystals usually as thin and thick curled wires, arborescent growths, and as scales sheets and masses, less commonly as cubic, octahedral and dodecahedral crystals. Silver is usually tarnished black. Silver is paramagnetic, and can be magnetically attracted with the application of an external magnetic field.

Ref. Handbook of Mineralogy, Anthony et al (1995) and MSA at http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/silver.pdf

Formula

Ag 

Crystal System

Isometric 

Crystal Habit

Arborescent, Dendritic, Massive 

Cleavage

None, None, None 

Luster

Metallic 

Color

silver white, gray white, gray 

Streak

silver white 

Class

Isometric - Hexoctahedral 

Fracture

Hackly 

Hardness

2.5-3 

WebMineral

View Silver 

Mindat

View Silver 

Curled wires 1cm across with surficially Acanthite alterations and associated with Polybasite.

Wire Silver to 3cm.

Curled Silver wires. FOV 4cm.

Thick Silver wires. FOV 5cm.

Nuggets, sheets and massive Silver.

Also, wire silver to 10mm on Acanthite.

Massive Silver.

Silver scales to 1cm.

Special Info

Phillips Collection

Older specimen with dozens of twisted Silver wires throughout matrix and black to silvery micro crystals of Polybasite.

A 1cm area of wire Silver (with Acanthite overgrowth) associated with deep red Sphalerite, Galena and Siderite.

Curly wire Silver thickly filling small open vugs in matrix and longer crystals to 2cm set nicely on matrix.

Silver is rare at the Christmas mine. This specimen has tarnished black dendritic growths in a 1cm string. You can see the silvery color only when you smear a little bit of these crystals because of the outer oxidation.

2cm Silver nugget.

Native Silver in crude crystals and leafs. The front side has a few 2mm areas of Silver and minor showings elsewhre. The back side shows an area over 1.5 x 1.5cm with good coverage of untarnished leaf silver. An interesting association with blue Calcite, Malachite and Chalcocite. It is from the 3rd oxidation zone.

Dendritic or arborescent Silver throughout matrix with acicular tarnished Acanthite.

Nice curly wire silver to 1mm in vug with Galena and creamy Woodhouseite.

Herringbone habit Silver crystals. 

This specimen exhibits a modest presence of leaf Silver. The Silver lies flat on the quartzite or quartz-rich matrix with other sulfides dissemenated throughout.

Leaf Silver, tarnished on Galena with possible scarce Hessite.

Wire silver with spinel twin and an overgrowth of seconday Silver and Acanthite. Nice piece from this classic locality.

This is probably a specimen which would be coveted by an Arizona collector. An offbeat mine north of Globe, said to contain chlorides. On this specimen, Silver is abundant as seen in the photos. The dark grey mineral with the Silver could be Chlorargyrite, however it is not sectile and is hard perhaps a Quartz replacement.

Here's a hard one to get from Toughnut mine in Arizona. The Silver is in leaf form occuring in veinlets in black Chalcocite matrix and also on Malachite. Ex. Joe Cilen collection with tag.

A thin 3mm plate of arborescent Silver from this famous and historic mining district.

A fabulous slab of Silver rimming goldish grey Safflorite in plumose growth in a carbonate mass. The piece shows ore mineralogy nicely.

This is a picture perfect example of the herringbone habit Silver. It is essentially dendritic growth in fabulous 3-D crystals the longest of which is a string to 2cm. The Silver is exposed by etching away the native Arsenic matrix.

Extremely rich specimen loaded with wire Silver and tarnished black micro crystals and masses of Acanthite on light blue Baryte. The Waidler tag indicates that it is from the Puzzler vein. 

Plate of Silver, thick with masses of black Stromeyerite.

A large specimen of sheet Silver with a plate 10cm long by 5cm wide attached to spectacular iridescent Bornite. 

Two small bundles of wire silver from the famous Mollie Gibson! Note they are small and the dimensions below are for just one of the wires, but both are roughly the same size.

Two wire Silvers, one is 8mm the other 5mm on Pyrite and other sulfides matrix.

Curly wires of Silver crystals to 3mm with iridescent blue Bornite pods and crude crystals on Quartz.

Wire Silver at it's best. Small TN size with a wire to over 2cm along the curled length.

Tiny 1-4mm wire silver crystals on in in vuggy pink Rhodochrosite. The original tag makes a claim for Pearceite. These could be the the plates seen in the photos, if so they have been replaced by Acanthite.

An old-timer Silver specimen. The Silver occurs virtually everywhere between white blades of Barite along with the black Acanthite. Very nice piece from the mine. There is a location sticker on the backside. Ex. J. Hamel Collection.

An ugly specimen but loaded with somewhat tarnished Silver in Augite(?), garnet matrix.

An excellent nugget "half-breed" of Silver and Copper.