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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoonSong" data-source="post: 6129149" data-attributes="member: 6689464">Well a preindustrial society wouldn't have the amounts of air and water pollution that in turn lead to silver tarnishing, and btw such society wouldn't ne able to easily turn platinum into jewerly.For starters silver is shinny and very reflectant, being a key component of ancient mirrors, but it is also very noble, soft ductil and light, lending itself to not only jewerly but also many other delicate objects, and it is fairly resistant to corrosion, which is a key element to keeping it's value. Tarnishing is but a minor inconvenience and pretty tame in comparison, most other metals rust and turn into dust when under the same conditions. Most of these properties are shared with the copper and gold. Simply, the value of these three metals is readily apparent, while the value of platinum is not. (When europeans first discovered platinum they never considered it valuable, until many years later when they found out just how rare it was and the industrial uses it had, on the other hand silver was the one trade good chinese and japanesse never said no to)    And unlike platinum, silver isn't toxic in the long run.</blockquote>