The history of silver and other precious metal dates back as far as trading does. Before the use of precious metal coins, livestock, grain or material goods were often used to barter deals. Later, precious metals such as gold and silver were introduced to trade to help even out deals.
If you were trading livestock for grain, the trade wasn’t of equal value. This is where precious metals came into play, helping tradesman make change or equally valued deals.
Lydia, an Asia Minor Kingdom, was said to be the first to mint separate gold and silver coins and distinguish a value between the two around 560 BC. The society was also the first to open permanent retail stores that used gold and silver coins as a form of payment.
Great Britain, for instance, introduced a system of pounds, shillings and pence. The pound is literally a pound of sterling silver. China used silver as a form of official currency until the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1911.
Over the years silver coins have evolved and have been minted how we know them to be today—imprinted with symbols and values.
The United States began using silver pieces as a form of money in the late 1700s. By 1965 silver was eliminated from quarters and dimes and the quantity in half dollars was reduced to 40 percent because the cost of silver was greater than the face value of the coins it was used to make. Over the years commemorative coin sets have made their way into circulation and continue to be considered a great investment piece.