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108-529: Knowledge of the recovery became public on May 18, 2007, when the company flew 17 tons of coins, mostly silver , from Gibraltar to a secure location of unknown address in Florida , United States. The company did not release the type, date, or nationality of the coins, while a rumor attributed it to the Merchant Royal , which sank near Land's End in 1641. At the time, Odyssey said that it planned to return to

216-555: A U.S. magistrate judge in Tampa, Florida ( United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida ) determined from written submissions that the treasure had come from the Spanish warship, Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes . Declaring that he lacked jurisdiction to proceed with the case, he ruled in favor of Spain's claim of sovereign immunity. Odyssey Marine stated it planned to appeal

324-486: A bullet cast from silver is often supposed in such folklore the only weapon that is effective against a werewolf , witch , or other monsters . From this the idiom of a silver bullet developed into figuratively referring to any simple solution with very high effectiveness or almost miraculous results, as in the widely discussed software engineering paper " No Silver Bullet ." Other powers attributed to silver include detection of poison and facilitation of passage into

432-596: A chemical element ; it has symbol Ag (from Latin argentum  'silver', derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erǵ ' shiny, white ' ) and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal , it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity , thermal conductivity , and reflectivity of any metal . Silver is found in the Earth's crust in the pure, free elemental form (" native silver"), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite . Most silver

540-496: A covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of silver. Silver has a brilliant, white, metallic luster that can take a high polish , and which is so characteristic that the name of the metal itself has become a color name . Protected silver has greater optical reflectivity than aluminium at all wavelengths longer than ~450 nm. At wavelengths shorter than 450 nm, silver's reflectivity

648-568: A US Federal Court in Tampa ordered Odyssey Marine to disclose details of the wreck site to the Spanish government and for both to return to court in March. During those proceedings, Odyssey Marine stated that its Black Swan treasure was recovered in the Atlantic approximately 180 miles (290 km) west of Portugal. That location would appear to rule out the Merchant Royal (which sank much further north in

756-481: A chartered jet to an undisclosed location in the United States to be examined. Odyssey said they expected the wreck to become one of the "most publicised in history". The entire operation is thought to have taken years and cost millions. Graphic novelist Paco Roca, who with Spanish diplomat Guillermo Corral wrote a fictionalised version of the project, says that they were "critical of the company's manner of extracting

864-450: A colorant in stained glass , and in specialized confectionery. Its compounds are used in photographic and X-ray film. Dilute solutions of silver nitrate and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides ( oligodynamic effect ), added to bandages , wound-dressings, catheters , and other medical instruments . Silver is similar in its physical and chemical properties to its two vertical neighbours in group 11 of

972-575: A non-Indo-European Wanderwort . Some scholars have thus proposed a Paleo-Hispanic origin, pointing to the Basque form zilharr as an evidence. The chemical symbol Ag is from the Latin word for silver , argentum (compare Ancient Greek ἄργυρος , árgyros ), from the Proto-Indo-European root * h₂erǵ- (formerly reconstructed as *arǵ- ), meaning ' white ' or ' shining ' . This

1080-454: A passing resemblance to the Black Swan story, was released by Sony Pictures. National Geographic's 2021 film, 'Battle for the Black Swan', written and directed by Christopher Riley , tells the story of the discovery of the wreck, the salvage, and subsequent dispute. It won a gold medal for History and Society at the 2022 New York Festivals TV & Film Awards. Silver Silver is

1188-550: A reward for betrayal, references the bribe Judas Iscariot is said in the New Testament to have taken from Jewish leaders in Jerusalem to turn Jesus of Nazareth over to soldiers of the high priest Caiaphas. Ethically, silver also symbolizes greed and degradation of consciousness; this is the negative aspect, the perverting of its value. The abundance of silver in the Earth's crust is 0.08  parts per million , almost exactly

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1296-612: A scale unparalleled before the discovery of the New World . Reaching a peak production of 200 tonnes per year, an estimated silver stock of 10,000 tonnes circulated in the Roman economy in the middle of the second century AD, five to ten times larger than the combined amount of silver available to medieval Europe and the Abbasid Caliphate around AD 800. The Romans also recorded the extraction of silver in central and northern Europe in

1404-556: Is cognate with Old High German silabar ; Gothic silubr ; or Old Norse silfr , all ultimately deriving from Proto-Germanic *silubra . The Balto-Slavic words for silver are rather similar to the Germanic ones (e.g. Russian серебро [ serebró ], Polish srebro , Lithuanian sidãbras ), as is the Celtiberian form silabur . They may have a common Indo-European origin, although their morphology rather suggest

1512-465: Is the difluoride , AgF 2 , which can be obtained from the elements under heat. A strong yet thermally stable and therefore safe fluorinating agent, silver(II) fluoride is often used to synthesize hydrofluorocarbons . In stark contrast to this, all four silver(I) halides are known. The fluoride , chloride , and bromide have the sodium chloride structure, but the iodide has three known stable forms at different temperatures; that at room temperature

1620-470: Is Ag 3 O which behaves as a metallic conductor. Silver(I) sulfide , Ag 2 S, is very readily formed from its constituent elements and is the cause of the black tarnish on some old silver objects. It may also be formed from the reaction of hydrogen sulfide with silver metal or aqueous Ag ions. Many non-stoichiometric selenides and tellurides are known; in particular, AgTe ~3 is a low-temperature superconductor . The only known dihalide of silver

1728-438: Is because its filled 4d shell is not very effective in shielding the electrostatic forces of attraction from the nucleus to the outermost 5s electron, and hence silver is near the bottom of the electrochemical series ( E (Ag /Ag) = +0.799 V). In group 11, silver has the lowest first ionization energy (showing the instability of the 5s orbital), but has higher second and third ionization energies than copper and gold (showing

1836-549: Is higher than that of lead (1.87), and its electron affinity of 125.6 kJ/mol is much higher than that of hydrogen (72.8 kJ/mol) and not much less than that of oxygen (141.0 kJ/mol). Due to its full d-subshell, silver in its main +1 oxidation state exhibits relatively few properties of the transition metals proper from groups 4 to 10, forming rather unstable organometallic compounds , forming linear complexes showing very low coordination numbers like 2, and forming an amphoteric oxide as well as Zintl phases like

1944-428: Is inferior to that of aluminium and drops to zero near 310 nm. Very high electrical and thermal conductivity are common to the elements in group 11, because their single s electron is free and does not interact with the filled d subshell, as such interactions (which occur in the preceding transition metals) lower electron mobility. The thermal conductivity of silver is among the highest of all materials, although

2052-675: Is known to have some of the largest silver deposits in the world. Nuestra Se%C3%B1ora de las Mercedes Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes ( Our Lady of Mercy in English, a title of the Virgin Mary ) was a Spanish Navy frigate which was sunk by the British off the south coast of Portugal on 5 October 1804 during the Battle of Cape Santa Maria . At the time of the naval action Spain and England were at peace with each other. The Spanish frigate

2160-413: Is much less stable, fuming in moist air and reacting with glass. Silver(II) complexes are more common. Like the valence isoelectronic copper(II) complexes, they are usually square planar and paramagnetic, which is increased by the greater field splitting for 4d electrons than for 3d electrons. Aqueous Ag , produced by oxidation of Ag by ozone, is a very strong oxidising agent, even in acidic solutions: it

2268-410: Is not reversible because the silver atom liberated is typically found at a crystal defect or an impurity site, so that the electron's energy is lowered enough that it is "trapped". White silver nitrate , AgNO 3 , is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, especially the halides, and is much less sensitive to light. It was once called lunar caustic because silver was called luna by

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2376-424: Is pale yellow, becoming purplish on exposure to light; it projects slightly from the surface of the artifact or coin. The precipitation of copper in ancient silver can be used to date artifacts, as copper is nearly always a constituent of silver alloys. Silver metal is attacked by strong oxidizers such as potassium permanganate ( KMnO 4 ) and potassium dichromate ( K 2 Cr 2 O 7 ), and in

2484-402: Is produced as a byproduct of copper , gold, lead , and zinc refining . Silver has long been valued as a precious metal . Silver metal is used in many bullion coins , sometimes alongside gold : while it is more abundant than gold, it is much less abundant as a native metal . Its purity is typically measured on a per-mille basis; a 94%-pure alloy is described as "0.940 fine". As one of

2592-415: Is rare in the periodic table. The atomic weight is 107.8682(2) u ; this value is very important because of the importance of silver compounds, particularly halides, in gravimetric analysis . Both isotopes of silver are produced in stars via the s-process (slow neutron capture), as well as in supernovas via the r-process (rapid neutron capture). Twenty-eight radioisotopes have been characterized,

2700-531: Is reflected in the relative decomposition temperatures of AgMe (−50 °C) and CuMe (−15 °C) as well as those of PhAg (74 °C) and PhCu (100 °C). The C–Ag bond is stabilized by perfluoroalkyl ligands, for example in AgCF(CF 3 ) 2 . Alkenylsilver compounds are also more stable than their alkylsilver counterparts. Silver- NHC complexes are easily prepared, and are commonly used to prepare other NHC complexes by displacing labile ligands. For example,

2808-472: Is stabilized in phosphoric acid due to complex formation. Peroxodisulfate oxidation is generally necessary to give the more stable complexes with heterocyclic amines , such as [Ag(py) 4 ] and [Ag(bipy) 2 ] : these are stable provided the counterion cannot reduce the silver back to the +1 oxidation state. [AgF 4 ] is also known in its violet barium salt, as are some silver(II) complexes with N - or O -donor ligands such as pyridine carboxylates. By far

2916-413: Is the cubic zinc blende structure. They can all be obtained by the direct reaction of their respective elements. As the halogen group is descended, the silver halide gains more and more covalent character, solubility decreases, and the colour changes from the white chloride to the yellow iodide as the energy required for ligand-metal charge transfer (X Ag → XAg) decreases. The fluoride is anomalous, as

3024-726: Is used in vacuum brazing . The two metals are completely miscible as liquids but not as solids; their importance in industry comes from the fact that their properties tend to be suitable over a wide range of variation in silver and copper concentration, although most useful alloys tend to be richer in silver than the eutectic mixture (71.9% silver and 28.1% copper by weight, and 60.1% silver and 28.1% copper by atom). Most other binary alloys are of little use: for example, silver–gold alloys are too soft and silver– cadmium alloys too toxic. Ternary alloys have much greater importance: dental amalgams are usually silver–tin–mercury alloys, silver–copper–gold alloys are very important in jewellery (usually on

3132-482: Is usually obtained by reacting silver or silver monofluoride with the strongest known oxidizing agent, krypton difluoride . Silver and gold have rather low chemical affinities for oxygen, lower than copper, and it is therefore expected that silver oxides are thermally quite unstable. Soluble silver(I) salts precipitate dark-brown silver(I) oxide , Ag 2 O, upon the addition of alkali. (The hydroxide AgOH exists only in solution; otherwise it spontaneously decomposes to

3240-843: The Koenigs–Knorr reaction . In the Fétizon oxidation , silver carbonate on celite acts as an oxidising agent to form lactones from diols . It is also employed to convert alkyl bromides into alcohols . Silver fulminate , AgCNO, a powerful, touch-sensitive explosive used in percussion caps , is made by reaction of silver metal with nitric acid in the presence of ethanol . Other dangerously explosive silver compounds are silver azide , AgN 3 , formed by reaction of silver nitrate with sodium azide , and silver acetylide , Ag 2 C 2 , formed when silver reacts with acetylene gas in ammonia solution. In its most characteristic reaction, silver azide decomposes explosively, releasing nitrogen gas: given

3348-532: The Lahn region, Siegerland , Silesia , Hungary , Norway , Steiermark , Schwaz , and the southern Black Forest . Most of these ores were quite rich in silver and could simply be separated by hand from the remaining rock and then smelted; some deposits of native silver were also encountered. Many of these mines were soon exhausted, but a few of them remained active until the Industrial Revolution , before which

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3456-646: The mythical realm of fairies . Silver production has also inspired figurative language. Clear references to cupellation occur throughout the Old Testament of the Bible , such as in Jeremiah 's rebuke to Judah: "The bellows are burned, the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melteth in vain: for the wicked are not plucked away. Reprobate silver shall men call them, because the Lord hath rejected them." (Jeremiah 6:19–20) Jeremiah

3564-433: The periodic table : copper , and gold . Its 47 electrons are arranged in the configuration [Kr]4d 5s , similarly to copper ([Ar]3d 4s ) and gold ([Xe]4f 5d 6s ); group 11 is one of the few groups in the d-block which has a completely consistent set of electron configurations. This distinctive electron configuration, with a single electron in the highest occupied s subshell over a filled d subshell, accounts for many of

3672-435: The platinum complexes (though they are formed more readily than those of the analogous gold complexes): they are also quite unsymmetrical, showing the weak π bonding in group 11. Ag–C σ bonds may also be formed by silver(I), like copper(I) and gold(I), but the simple alkyls and aryls of silver(I) are even less stable than those of copper(I) (which tend to explode under ambient conditions). For example, poor thermal stability

3780-526: The post-transition metals . Unlike the preceding transition metals, the +1 oxidation state of silver is stable even in the absence of π-acceptor ligands . Silver does not react with air, even at red heat, and thus was considered by alchemists as a noble metal , along with gold. Its reactivity is intermediate between that of copper (which forms copper(I) oxide when heated in air to red heat) and gold. Like copper, silver reacts with sulfur and its compounds; in their presence, silver tarnishes in air to form

3888-702: The 19th century, primary production of silver moved to North America, particularly Canada , Mexico , and Nevada in the United States : some secondary production from lead and zinc ores also took place in Europe, and deposits in Siberia and the Russian Far East as well as in Australia were mined. Poland emerged as an important producer during the 1970s after the discovery of copper deposits that were rich in silver, before

3996-750: The Atlantic), and the Mercedes (which sank approximately 30 nautical miles (56 km) off the Portuguese coast), and HMS Sussex (which sank inside the Strait of Gibraltar.) The recovered bullion, being predominately silver coins, with some gold coins and copper ingots, strongly suggests it came from a colonial-era Spanish ship that sank while transporting newly minted silver from South America to Spain. Salvage law in international waters, as recognized by some English-speaking countries, could award 90% of recovered treasure to

4104-568: The Greek and Roman civilizations, silver coins were a staple of the economy: the Greeks were already extracting silver from galena by the 7th century BC, and the rise of Athens was partly made possible by the nearby silver mines at Laurium , from which they extracted about 30 tonnes a year from 600 to 300 BC. The stability of the Roman currency relied to a high degree on the supply of silver bullion, mostly from Spain, which Roman miners produced on

4212-578: The Spanish Government deposited the 14.5 tons of gold and silver coins recovered in the National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology in Cartagena ( Murcia ) for cataloging, study and permanent display. In 2015 a U.S. district court ordered Odyssey to pay Spain $ 1 million for "bad faith and abusive litigation". The judge observed that, throughout the lawsuit, "Odyssey knew at all times that Spain, given

4320-492: The Spanish Ministry of Culture stated that Spain would be willing to share the treasure 'out of a sense of a common cultural heritage'. However, Peru, as well as the descendants of the merchants who shipped the coins as cargo aboard the Mercedes , are contesting Spain's right to the treasure, along with Odyssey, in a pending court case. Spanish authorities decided to return passports and official documents to some members of

4428-444: The Spanish government started a legal battle to halt what they considered was an act of illegal looting. Peru attempted to claim the treasure as being originally plundered by the Spanish. However, a court case decided that the Spanish government was the rightful successor of interest because at the time of the wreck, Peru was considered a Spanish colony and not a separate legal entity, therefore it had no legal standing to be entitled to

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4536-553: The ancient alchemists, who believed that silver was associated with the Moon. It is often used for gravimetric analysis, exploiting the insolubility of the heavier silver halides which it is a common precursor to. Silver nitrate is used in many ways in organic synthesis , e.g. for deprotection and oxidations. Ag binds alkenes reversibly, and silver nitrate has been used to separate mixtures of alkenes by selective absorption. The resulting adduct can be decomposed with ammonia to release

4644-637: The black silver sulfide (copper forms the green sulfate instead, while gold does not react). While silver is not attacked by non-oxidizing acids, the metal dissolves readily in hot concentrated sulfuric acid , as well as dilute or concentrated nitric acid . In the presence of air, and especially in the presence of hydrogen peroxide , silver dissolves readily in aqueous solutions of cyanide . The three main forms of deterioration in historical silver artifacts are tarnishing, formation of silver chloride due to long-term immersion in salt water, as well as reaction with nitrate ions or oxygen. Fresh silver chloride

4752-707: The centre of production returned to the Americas the following decade. Today, Peru and Mexico are still among the primary silver producers, but the distribution of silver production around the world is quite balanced and about one-fifth of the silver supply comes from recycling instead of new production. Silver plays a certain role in mythology and has found various usage as a metaphor and in folklore. The Greek poet Hesiod 's Works and Days (lines 109–201) lists different ages of man named after metals like gold, silver, bronze and iron to account for successive ages of humanity. Ovid 's Metamorphoses contains another retelling of

4860-401: The charges in response to a request by Representative Kathy Castor of Florida. In March 2011, it determined that it could find no evidence of a connection between the Black Swan case and the negotiations for the return of the artwork in question (a Pissarro painting). In September 2011, The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court's determination that the unidentified ship

4968-418: The company to turn over the hoard. On February 9, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an emergency application for a stay filed by Odyssey Marine, which said it wanted to maintain possession of a half-billion dollars' worth of gold and silver coins until a final decision is made about who owns them. Justice Clarence Thomas , who has jurisdiction over applications from Florida, denied without comment

5076-489: The crew and allow some to leave. The survey vessel was cleared for departure by the Spanish Civil Guard on July 14, 2007. The Spanish government stated that it considers it acted within its own territorial waters. The UK argued that the incident took place in international waters and was therefore illegal. However, Spain verbally stated its claim over the waters that it does not recognise Gibraltar waters except within

5184-593: The decision. On February 24, 2012, two C-130 Hercules aircraft from the Spanish Air Force picked up the treasure in Florida and transported it to Spain. Odyssey petitioned the Supreme Court to reconsider the issues in the case but on May 14, 2012, the court declined to take up the appeal. The coins have been returned to Spain, whereby Spanish law dictates that they can never be sold to the public. On December 2, 2012,

5292-434: The dominant producers of silver until around the beginning of the 18th century, particularly Peru , Bolivia , Chile , and Argentina : the last of these countries later took its name from that of the metal that composed so much of its mineral wealth. The silver trade gave way to a global network of exchange . As one historian put it, silver "went round the world and made the world go round." Much of this silver ended up in

5400-436: The edges of the coins it appears that they come from the middle of the 18th century, too late to be from Merchant Royal . Rare coin expert Nick Bruyer, who examined a sample of 6,000 coins from the wreck, said of the discovery, "For this colonial era, I think (the find) is unprecedented... I don't know of anything equal or comparable to it." He also believes much or all of the coinage is uncirculated . The finds were shipped in

5508-411: The elements in groups 10–14 (except boron and carbon ) have very complex Ag–M phase diagrams and form the most commercially important alloys; and the remaining elements on the periodic table have no consistency in their Ag–M phase diagrams. By far the most important such alloys are those with copper: most silver used for coinage and jewellery is in reality a silver–copper alloy, and the eutectic mixture

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5616-526: The exceptions are the nitrate, perchlorate, and fluoride. The tetracoordinate tetrahedral aqueous ion [Ag(H 2 O) 4 ] is known, but the characteristic geometry for the Ag cation is 2-coordinate linear. For example, silver chloride dissolves readily in excess aqueous ammonia to form [Ag(NH 3 ) 2 ] ; silver salts are dissolved in photography due to the formation of the thiosulfate complex [Ag(S 2 O 3 ) 2 ] ; and cyanide extraction for silver (and gold) works by

5724-500: The fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations. A fictionalised comic book based on the project, The Treasure of the Black Swan , written by a Spanish diplomat involved in the legal battle, Guillermo Corral, and Spanish graphic novelist Paco Roca was produced in 2018. It was adapted into the television series La Fortuna (2021). The same year, a Spanish action film directed by Jaume Balagueró called The Vault , that bears

5832-534: The fluoride ion is so small that it has a considerable solvation energy and hence is highly water-soluble and forms di- and tetrahydrates. The other three silver halides are highly insoluble in aqueous solutions and are very commonly used in gravimetric analytical methods. All four are photosensitive (though the monofluoride is so only to ultraviolet light), especially the bromide and iodide which photodecompose to silver metal, and thus were used in traditional photography . The reaction involved is: The process

5940-523: The formation of the complex [Ag(CN) 2 ] . Silver cyanide forms the linear polymer {Ag–C≡N→Ag–C≡N→}; silver thiocyanate has a similar structure, but forms a zigzag instead because of the sp - hybridized sulfur atom. Chelating ligands are unable to form linear complexes and thus silver(I) complexes with them tend to form polymers; a few exceptions exist, such as the near-tetrahedral diphosphine and diarsine complexes [Ag(L–L) 2 ] . Under standard conditions, silver does not form simple carbonyls, due to

6048-412: The free alkene. Yellow silver carbonate , Ag 2 CO 3 can be easily prepared by reacting aqueous solutions of sodium carbonate with a deficiency of silver nitrate. Its principal use is for the production of silver powder for use in microelectronics. It is reduced with formaldehyde , producing silver free of alkali metals: Silver carbonate is also used as a reagent in organic synthesis such as

6156-567: The gold-rich side) and have a vast range of hardnesses and colours, silver–copper–zinc alloys are useful as low-melting brazing alloys, and silver–cadmium– indium (involving three adjacent elements on the periodic table) is useful in nuclear reactors because of its high thermal neutron capture cross-section , good conduction of heat, mechanical stability, and resistance to corrosion in hot water. The word silver appears in Old English in various spellings, such as seolfor and siolfor . It

6264-454: The hands of the Chinese. A Portuguese merchant in 1621 noted that silver "wanders throughout all the world... before flocking to China, where it remains as if at its natural center." Still, much of it went to Spain, allowing Spanish rulers to pursue military and political ambitions in both Europe and the Americas. "New World mines", concluded several historians, "supported the Spanish empire." In

6372-465: The information pertinent to identification, possessed the historical information and the expertise to identify immediately whether the wreck in question was a Spanish vessel" and that "the fact that Odyssey never asked for Spain's assistance in identifying the vessel reveals much about Odyssey's motives and objectives." Since 2014, part of the treasure has been on display in several Spanish public museums as part of an extensive itinerant exhibit relating to

6480-567: The judge in his order. In January 2011, Odyssey Marine claimed that the language used in recently leaked diplomatic cables showed that the US State Department had been involved with negotiations to assist the Spanish government in receiving the treasure in exchange for the return of allegedly stolen artwork to a US private citizen. The US State Department declined to comment while Spain denied Odyssey Marine's claim. The Department of State's Office of Inspector General subsequently investigated

6588-624: The location of the ship in an area known to contain a large number of colonial-era wrecks, the identity of the ship would not be disclosed pending further examination of the coins and artifacts. It was also thought the treasure might be from a ship that Odyssey had petitioned a federal court for permission to salvage, which was located off the southwest coast of the United Kingdom , within a five-mile (8 km) radius of 49°25′N 6°0′W  /  49.417°N 6.000°W  / 49.417; -6.000 . Mike Johnson initially speculated that

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6696-438: The loss of life and the unprovoked attack leading to war between Spain and Britain. In 2007 the company Odyssey Marine Exploration reported having found, at an undisclosed location, a very rich shipwreck code-named "Black Swan" . Odyssey recovered almost 500,000 silver and gold coins from the wreck, and transported them to the United States. Spanish researchers quickly identified the ship found by Odyssey with Mercedes and

6804-606: The metal. The situation changed with the discovery of cupellation , a technique that allowed silver metal to be extracted from its ores. While slag heaps found in Asia Minor and on the islands of the Aegean Sea indicate that silver was being separated from lead as early as the 4th millennium BC , and one of the earliest silver extraction centres in Europe was Sardinia in the early Chalcolithic period , these techniques did not spread widely until later, when it spread throughout

6912-434: The most important oxidation state for silver in complexes is +1. The Ag cation is diamagnetic, like its homologues Cu and Au , as all three have closed-shell electron configurations with no unpaired electrons: its complexes are colourless provided the ligands are not too easily polarized such as I . Ag forms salts with most anions, but it is reluctant to coordinate to oxygen and thus most of these salts are insoluble in water:

7020-546: The most stable being Ag with a half-life of 41.29 days, Ag with a half-life of 7.45 days, and Ag with a half-life of 3.13 hours. Silver has numerous nuclear isomers , the most stable being Ag ( t 1/2 = 418 years), Ag ( t 1/2 = 249.79 days) and Ag ( t 1/2 = 8.28 days). All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than an hour, and the majority of these have half-lives of less than three minutes. Isotopes of silver range in relative atomic mass from 92.950 u ( Ag) to 129.950 u ( Ag);

7128-572: The motion in Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. v. Kingdom of Spain . Odyssey Marine had made an emergency appeal to the high court in an attempt to block a lower court's order last week that it turn over the treasure to Spain. On February 17, 2012, it was reported that U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo ordered Odyssey to return the coins to Spain by February 24, 2012, where they will be dispersed to museums, not to heirs. The Supreme Court declined to stay this order and Odyssey will abide by

7236-573: The only objects with a high-enough palladium-to-silver ratio to yield measurable variations in Ag abundance. Radiogenic Ag was first discovered in the Santa Clara meteorite in 1978. Pd– Ag correlations observed in bodies that have clearly been melted since the accretion of the Solar System must reflect the presence of unstable nuclides in the early Solar System. Silver is a rather unreactive metal. This

7344-625: The ores of copper, copper-nickel, lead, and lead-zinc obtained from Peru , Bolivia , Mexico , China , Australia , Chile , Poland and Serbia . Peru, Bolivia and Mexico have been mining silver since 1546, and are still major world producers. Top silver-producing mines are Cannington (Australia), Fresnillo (Mexico), San Cristóbal (Bolivia), Antamina (Peru), Rudna (Poland), and Penasquito (Mexico). Top near-term mine development projects through 2015 are Pascua Lama (Chile), Navidad (Argentina), Jaunicipio (Mexico), Malku Khota (Bolivia), and Hackett River (Canada). In Central Asia , Tajikistan

7452-423: The oxide.) Silver(I) oxide is very easily reduced to metallic silver, and decomposes to silver and oxygen above 160 °C. This and other silver(I) compounds may be oxidized by the strong oxidizing agent peroxodisulfate to black AgO, a mixed silver(I,III) oxide of formula Ag Ag O 2 . Some other mixed oxides with silver in non-integral oxidation states, namely Ag 2 O 3 and Ag 3 O 4 , are also known, as

7560-577: The photosensitivity of silver salts, this behaviour may be induced by shining a light on its crystals. Silver complexes tend to be similar to those of its lighter homologue copper. Silver(III) complexes tend to be rare and very easily reduced to the more stable lower oxidation states, though they are slightly more stable than those of copper(III). For instance, the square planar periodate [Ag(IO 5 OH) 2 ] and tellurate [Ag{TeO 4 (OH) 2 } 2 ] complexes may be prepared by oxidising silver(I) with alkaline peroxodisulfate . The yellow diamagnetic [AgF 4 ]

7668-478: The port of Gibraltar and that all waters up to 12 miles (19 km) from the coastline it claims, are considered Spanish waters. On July 26, 2007, Odyssey Marine Exploration was granted two of the three motions for an Extension of Time to file its responses to the Spain's Motions for More Definite Statements in the three admiralty arrests which Odyssey had pending at the U.S. District Court that assumed jurisdiction over

7776-961: The presence of potassium bromide ( KBr ). These compounds are used in photography to bleach silver images, converting them to silver bromide that can either be fixed with thiosulfate or redeveloped to intensify the original image. Silver forms cyanide complexes ( silver cyanide ) that are soluble in water in the presence of an excess of cyanide ions. Silver cyanide solutions are used in electroplating of silver. The common oxidation states of silver are (in order of commonness): +1 (the most stable state; for example, silver nitrate , AgNO 3 ); +2 (highly oxidising; for example, silver(II) fluoride , AgF 2 ); and even very rarely +3 (extreme oxidising; for example, potassium tetrafluoroargentate(III), KAgF 4 ). The +3 state requires very strong oxidising agents to attain, such as fluorine or peroxodisulfate , and some silver(III) compounds react with atmospheric moisture and attack glass. Indeed, silver(III) fluoride

7884-406: The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, Ag, is electron capture and the primary mode after is beta decay . The primary decay products before Ag are palladium (element 46) isotopes, and the primary products after are cadmium (element 48) isotopes. The palladium isotope Pd decays by beta emission to Ag with a half-life of 6.5 million years. Iron meteorites are

7992-480: The principle of comity . It said, "We do not hold the recovered [treasure] is ultimately Spanish property. Rather, we merely hold the sovereign immunity owed the shipwreck of the Mercedes also applies to any cargo the Mercedes was carrying when it sank." January 31, 2012, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia, rejected a motion from Odyssey Marine to stay the same court's November decision ordering

8100-628: The proceeds of the lawsuit. A U.S. federal court and a panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld the Spanish claim to the contents of the ship; Spain took control of the treasure in February 2012. A very small number of coins and effects recovered from the ship were deposited in Gibraltar, because they showed clear signs consistent with an internal explosion on

8208-419: The reaction of the bis(NHC)silver(I) complex with bis(acetonitrile)palladium dichloride or chlorido(dimethyl sulfide)gold(I) : Silver forms alloys with most other elements on the periodic table. The elements from groups 1–3, except for hydrogen , lithium , and beryllium , are very miscible with silver in the condensed phase and form intermetallic compounds; those from groups 4–9 are only poorly miscible;

8316-578: The recovered cargo based on the claim that the silver and gold coins recovered by Odyssey Marine came from a Spanish vessel, the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes , a 36-gun Spanish frigate that went down off the Portuguese coast en route from Montevideo to Cádiz . The Mercedes , which was sunk by British Navy ships in October 1804, was known to be carrying more than a million silver dollars. In January 2008,

8424-502: The region and beyond. The origins of silver production in India , China , and Japan were almost certainly equally ancient, but are not well-documented due to their great age. When the Phoenicians first came to what is now Spain , they obtained so much silver that they could not fit it all on their ships, and as a result used silver to weight their anchors instead of lead. By the time of

8532-477: The ruling. On December 22, 2009, a U.S. district judge validated the magistrate's report and recommendations but stayed the order to turn over the treasure to Spain until the Appeals process was completed. "The ineffable truth of this case is that the Mercedes is a naval vessel of Spain and that the wreck of this naval vessel, the vessel's cargo, and any human remains are the natural and legal patrimony of Spain," said

8640-518: The salvage firm. Spain claimed the entire ownership of the wreck and cargo, saying that it would pay no salvage award at all for the recovery because the cargo of the Mercedes would be protected by sovereign immunity , which supersedes admiralty law . Because some of the recovered coins were minted in Lima , the Peruvian government also laid claim to the treasure. In 2008, Jose Jimenez, a senior official with

8748-697: The same as that of mercury . It mostly occurs in sulfide ores, especially acanthite and argentite , Ag 2 S. Argentite deposits sometimes also contain native silver when they occur in reducing environments, and when in contact with salt water they are converted to chlorargyrite (including horn silver ), AgCl, which is prevalent in Chile and New South Wales . Most other silver minerals are silver pnictides or chalcogenides ; they are generally lustrous semiconductors. Most true silver deposits, as opposed to argentiferous deposits of other metals, came from Tertiary period vulcanism. The principal sources of silver are

8856-669: The same time period. This production came to a nearly complete halt with the fall of the Roman Empire, not to resume until the time of Charlemagne : by then, tens of thousands of tonnes of silver had already been extracted. Central Europe became the centre of silver production during the Middle Ages , as the Mediterranean deposits exploited by the ancient civilisations had been exhausted. Silver mines were opened in Bohemia , Saxony , Alsace ,

8964-440: The seven metals of antiquity , silver has had an enduring role in most human cultures. Other than in currency and as an investment medium ( coins and bullion ), silver is used in solar panels , water filtration , jewellery , ornaments, high-value tableware and utensils (hence the term " silverware "), in electrical contacts and conductors , in specialized mirrors, window coatings, in catalysis of chemical reactions, as

9072-536: The ship and thus confirmed Spanish claims to the wreck being that of Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes . They were not returned to Spain until 2013, when a court finally ordered Odyssey Marine to return the missing pieces. On 2 December 2012 the 14.5 tons cargo of gold and silver coins recovered from the wreck was deposited in the National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology in Cartagena ( Murcia ) for cataloging, study and permanent display. Spanish Naval Museum along with National Archaeological Museum of Spain showed

9180-461: The shipwreck are now in the National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology in Cartagena ( Murcia ). In 2015 a U.S. district court ordered Odyssey to pay Spain $ 1 million for "bad faith and abusive litigation." Odyssey Marine stated on 21 May 2007 that most of the recovered coins and treasure are believed to be from a particular shipwreck, but it was likely that artifacts from other wrecks had also been mixed in and were recovered. Odyssey said that due to

9288-429: The singular properties of metallic silver. Silver is a relatively soft and extremely ductile and malleable transition metal , though it is slightly less malleable than gold. Silver crystallizes in a face-centered cubic lattice with bulk coordination number 12, where only the single 5s electron is delocalized, similarly to copper and gold. Unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in silver are lacking

9396-574: The sinking of the ship, and the recovery of the treasure. On August 30, 2017, as a follow-up to the project, the Spanish Navy rescued two cannons, named "Santa Barbara" and "Santa Rufina", each weighing more than 2 tons. They had been cast in bronze and signed by smelter Bernardino de Tejeda, born in Seville, Spain, and who died in Lima, Peru, the direct ancestor of Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Lima, Peru, 1920-2020),

9504-426: The site to perform an excavation expected to uncover more coins as well as other artifacts. However, Odyssey was sued by the Spanish government in U.S. courts, which eventually ordered the treasure to be returned to Spain. Odyssey pursued all legal avenues, even taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and losing. On February 27, 2012, the ship's treasure was flown back to Spain where the coins and other artifacts from

9612-449: The sites. On October 16, 2007, Spain seized another vessel, Odyssey Explorer owned by Odyssey Marine Exploration as it sailed out of port from the British overseas territory of Gibraltar. The Odyssey Explorer captain, Sterling Vorus, claimed to have been in international waters, but was forced to dock at Algeciras under what Vorus declared was "threat of deadly force." Once in port, Vorus

9720-422: The stability of the 4d orbitals), so that the chemistry of silver is predominantly that of the +1 oxidation state, reflecting the increasingly limited range of oxidation states along the transition series as the d-orbitals fill and stabilize. Unlike copper , for which the larger hydration energy of Cu as compared to Cu is the reason why the former is the more stable in aqueous solution and solids despite lacking

9828-445: The stable filled d-subshell of the latter, with silver this effect is swamped by its larger second ionisation energy. Hence, Ag is the stable species in aqueous solution and solids, with Ag being much less stable as it oxidizes water. Most silver compounds have significant covalent character due to the small size and high first ionization energy (730.8 kJ/mol) of silver. Furthermore, silver's Pauling electronegativity of 1.93

9936-411: The story, containing an illustration of silver's metaphorical use of signifying the second-best in a series, better than bronze but worse than gold: But when good Saturn , banish'd from above, Was driv'n to Hell, the world was under Jove . Succeeding times a silver age behold, Excelling brass, but more excell'd by gold. In folklore, silver was commonly thought to have mystic powers: for example,

10044-463: The structure of the silver is largely unchanged while the electron concentration rises as more zinc is added. Increasing the electron concentration further leads to body-centred cubic (electron concentration 1.5), complex cubic (1.615), and hexagonal close-packed phases (1.75). Naturally occurring silver is composed of two stable isotopes , Ag and Ag, with Ag being slightly more abundant (51.839% natural abundance ). This almost equal abundance

10152-477: The surface of conductors rather than through the interior. During World War II in the US, 13540 tons of silver were used for the electromagnets in calutrons for enriching uranium , mainly because of the wartime shortage of copper. Silver readily forms alloys with copper, gold, and zinc . Zinc-silver alloys with low zinc concentration may be considered as face-centred cubic solid solutions of zinc in silver, as

10260-540: The thermal conductivity of carbon (in the diamond allotrope ) and superfluid helium-4 are higher. The electrical conductivity of silver is the highest of all metals, greater even than copper. Silver also has the lowest contact resistance of any metal. Silver is rarely used for its electrical conductivity, due to its high cost, although an exception is in radio-frequency engineering , particularly at VHF and higher frequencies where silver plating improves electrical conductivity because those currents tend to flow on

10368-400: The treasure might be from the wreck of the English merchant ship Merchant Royal , which sank on 23 September 1641 whilst returning to London. That ship sank in heavy weather when its pumps failed to keep up with the water leaking through the hull planks. Over half the crew, including the captain, John Limbrey, were able to abandon ship and were rescued by a sister-ship, Dover Merchant , which

10476-409: The treasure, using a kind of giant vacuum cleaner and destroying the wreck site, which is also a marine cemetery". In order to establish a legal claim to the recovered cargo, Odyssey filed in U.S. court for an arrest of the cargo on April 4, 2007, and then published notice of that arrest on May 7, 2007. On May 31, 2007, the Spanish government, pursuant to the notice of the arrest, filed a claim against

10584-567: The two nations were at peace, declared that they would not comply with the order, and ordered battle quarters, despite being outgunned and outnumbered. A single shot from HMS Amphion , commanded by Samuel Sutton, hit the ship's magazine , causing an explosion that sank the ship. 250 Spanish crewmen were lost, and 51 survivors were rescued from the sea and taken as prisoner. The other three vessels were interned in Britain. Her wreck has been compared with that of USS  Arizona at Pearl Harbor, due to

10692-458: The weakness of the Ag–C bond. A few are known at very low temperatures around 6–15 K, such as the green, planar paramagnetic Ag(CO) 3 , which dimerizes at 25–30 K, probably by forming Ag–Ag bonds. Additionally, the silver carbonyl [Ag(CO)] [B(OTeF 5 ) 4 ] is known. Polymeric AgLX complexes with alkenes and alkynes are known, but their bonds are thermodynamically weaker than even those of

10800-495: The world production of silver was around a meagre 50 tonnes per year. In the Americas, high temperature silver-lead cupellation technology was developed by pre-Inca civilizations as early as AD 60–120; silver deposits in India, China, Japan, and pre-Columbian America continued to be mined during this time. With the discovery of America and the plundering of silver by the Spanish conquistadors, Central and South America became

10908-528: Was accompanying Merchant Royal from Cadiz to London. The survivors provided a detailed description of the lost cargo—described in 1641 as "300,000 Pounds in silver, 100,000 Pounds in gold, and as much again in jewel"—as well as a general location near the Isles of Scilly , about "21 leagues " (about 35 to 40 miles) from Lands End . In 2005, the co-founder of Odyssey Marine, Greg Stemm, had admitted to British shipwreck expert Richard Larn that his firm

11016-413: Was also aware of sheet silver, exemplifying the malleability and ductility of the metal: "Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men." (Jeremiah 10:9) Silver also has more negative cultural meanings: the idiom thirty pieces of silver , referring to

11124-621: Was eventually arrested for disobedience after refusing inspection of the vessel without first receiving approval of Odyssey Explorer' s flag state, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. Vorus was released the following day. Aboard the Odyssey Explorer at the time of seizure, were about a dozen journalists and photographers, all of whom had their videotapes, tape recorders, and computer memory storage devices seized by Spanish officials. On June 4, 2009,

11232-588: Was in fact the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes and ruled that Odyssey Marine must return the 17 tons of silver coins and other recovered treasures to the Spanish government. The text of the decision can be found by searching the Appeals Court's opinions database for case no. 10–10269. The Court's decision rested mainly on its interpretation of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) and on

11340-501: Was more often used ornamentally or as money. Since silver is more reactive than gold, supplies of native silver were much more limited than those of gold. For example, silver was more expensive than gold in Egypt until around the fifteenth century BC: the Egyptians are thought to have separated gold from silver by heating the metals with salt, and then reducing the silver chloride produced to

11448-515: Was part of a small flotilla sailing from Montevideo (Uruguay) to Cadiz (Andalusia, Spain), transporting silver, gold, vicuña , cinnamon, and quinoa . The other ships in the flotilla were Medea , Santa Clara , and Fama . The flotilla was intercepted by a Royal Navy task force, commanded by Graham Moore aboard HMS Indefatigable , and ordered to change course and proceed to a British port for inspection. The Spanish commanding officer, brigadier José de Bustamante y Guerra (1759–1825) objected that

11556-549: Was searching for Merchant Royal . Odyssey Marine's sonar search ships trawled the area extensively in 2005 and 2006, frequently calling in Falmouth for crew rest. The Odyssey crew continued to allegedly search for the ship on the Discovery Channel 2009 television show Treasure Quest (filmed in 2008). Pictures of the coins released by Odyssey have had their markings obscured to prevent identification. However, from examining

11664-457: Was the usual Proto-Indo-European word for the metal, whose reflexes are missing in Germanic and Balto-Slavic. Silver was known in prehistoric times: the three metals of group 11, copper, silver, and gold, occur in the elemental form in nature and were probably used as the first primitive forms of money as opposed to simple bartering. Unlike copper, silver did not lead to the growth of metallurgy , on account of its low structural strength; it

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