Silver: in Latin Argentum, in French argent. It’s a precious metal, white in colour, shiny, quite elastic and stainless. In its pure state, it is so soft that it can be scratched with the nail. Out of all metals, silver is the best conductor of heat and electricity. At normal atmospheric pressure, it blurs and darkens because it is affected by traces of hydrogen sulphide in the air. In ancient times silver and gold used to be a subject of research by alchemists. They symbolized silver with a crescent and called it the metal of the Moon or goddess Artemis, due to its dim colour that resembled the moon’s radiance. Silver is the whitest metal and when properly polished, it can acquire a surface of excellent reflection.
