How was silver viewed during ancient times? We all know from stories of people who have searched all their life for a land of gold, books telling stories of buried treasure, which was filled with gold. Yet I can't find many accounts where people put silver in high regard but reading history books shows me of silver having massive purchasing power and was a basis for large scale commercial trading. I read of people in history working long hours for a small lump of silver and yet today it is treated like trash (in Asia most people invest in gold, very very few in silver). You can see from a few movies how people ecstatically laugh upon finding large amounts of hidden golden treasure yet silver doesn't seem to have the same amount of impact. My question is, if you were given a bunch of silver during those times, would it have meant anything and would you be complaining if you were to discover a mountain of silver instead of gold like the Conquistadors did (from my knowledge, they found a lot more silver than gold)? What was it like back then to receive a bunch of silver coins/bars?
It's mentioned in the Bible old and new testament, Vikings and Chinese also used it as money. So it seems to have been accepted as valuable in most ancient cultures.
I actually did a search on this a year ago in order to gauge the value of silver today vs the past - https://www.quora.com/How-much-would-100-taels-during-the-Qing-Dynasty-be-worth-today Silver sycees (boat ingots) measured in taels were used in ancient China. 1 tael is 37.5g which is 1.2 troy oz. If this were to be true, then 1.2 troy oz of silver will buy 35 kg of rice, which works out to 60 us cents per kg. In Singapore, rice varies from 1 usd to 2.5usd per kg. Using the lower 1 usd per kg, silver is worth 30$ per Troy oz in ancient China.
Silver Dirham was used around 600 AD with a ratio of 7 Dirhams to 1 Gold Dinar 200 Silver Dirham = 595g of Silver = 2.975g per Dirham https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces81315.html 20 Gold Dinar = 85g of Gold = 4.25g per Dinar https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces70967.html Purity fluctuated significantly over time and coins were often debased by rulers with whatever metal was locally available. Source: Islamic texts Hebrew half shekel of 2nd Century CE was 6.87g indicating Shekel was 13.74g of Silver.
Would love if anyone had information about historic use of silver and gold in Hebrew texts. The use of gold and silver as prescribed by religion is an interest of mine as it was religion that drove me to seek "pure" wealth free of usury in gold and silver. Particularly interested in historic gold and silver ratios.
Silver (and gold) was real money back then and still is today. And all this paper money is actually fiat currency and not money. There is a difference. Keep stacking !!
