What does silver look like?

Functional

Hero Member
Feb 16, 2007
512
3
Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada
Detector(s) used
A Compass Magnum 420 recently brought back to life. And an untested "in the wild" Teknetics.
cali209 said:
Im working an area that suposedly has silver but not sure what it looks like in the rough...

We have lots of lead from bullets as well as mercury in the area...so curious if silver looks like lead when found...or is it shiny like gold?

Thanks

Silver is rarely shiny and more often than not its near black, or gray, (sometimes similar to lead in color). Like gold, depending on what the silver might be alloyed with, it can be red, or green in color. I have seen some samples of silver that actually looked silver in color and were in the form of rounded nodules about 1/4" round, clumped together in bunches. Most anything you find of potential value, so far as precious metals are concerned, will be identifiable by basic tests which include observing the characteristics of the material, (color and crystal formations), performing a streak test using porcelain , harness test and acid tests. And if your equipped for it in the field, you can also do specific gravity testing.

Try these links for some images of silver ore:
http://www.galleries.com/scripts/item.exe?LIST+Minerals+Elements+Silver
http://images.google.ca/images?gbv=2&hl=en&q=silver+ore&btnG=Search+Images


F.
 

flyspekau

Full Member
Apr 2, 2008
175
1
Fresno Ca
Detector(s) used
Whites GMT
I believe I found a small mass of silver a few weeks ago , rounded nodules about 1/4" round, clumped together in bunches that describes it best looking under scope. We did a 10% nitric acid test looking to see if it was mirc on gold and it tarnished the nugget almost black.

I will try to get some pics the piece is very small had problems getting good will try again later
 

djui5

Bronze Member
May 22, 2006
1,807
293
Mesa, AZ
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None
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
Native Silver found in the field ;D That's my hand.
 

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Sky_Warrior

Sr. Member
Apr 23, 2008
345
9
Auburn Hills MI
Detector(s) used
MY ACE 250 JUST GOT HERE 5/07/08, also used a fisher 1220-x
This is what it looks like nuggets come of rocks and this was cut of copper ore
 

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