was eight to one of gold. "He was rich in silver and gold,
and bought a sepulchre for his wife Sarah for four hundred shekels of
silver" ($250.) It was not coined, but circulated only in bars or
ingots, and was always weighed. Silver usually takes precedence in the
Scriptures, whenever the two metals are mentioned conjunctively. "Silver
and gold have I none," said Peter to the importunate beggar, "but such
as I have, I give unto thee." Silver is first mentioned in Genesis
xxiii: 15; but where it was first found is unknown to us.

Silver was extremely abundant in ancient times. "And Solomon made
silver to be in Jerusalem as stones." (I Kings x: 27.) "Cyrus heaped up
silver as the dust." (Zacariah ix: 3.) In the earliest times the Greeks
obtained silver from the Phoceans and Laurians. The chief mines were in
Siphnos, Thessaly, and Attica. In the latter country the silver mines
of Laurion furnished an abundant supply, and were generally regarded
as the chief source of the wealth of Athens. They ceased to be worked
in the second century of the Christian Era. At the period B.C. 500,
the relative value of silver to gold was eighteen to one. The Romans
obtained most of their silver from the very rich mines of Spain, which
had previously been worked by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, and
which, though abandoned for those of Mexico, are still not exhausted.
The most important use for silver, among the Greeks, was for money.
At Rome, on the contrary, silver was not coined until B.C. 260.

Silver, as regards its mines, is represented in every portion of our
planet. The richest silver mine in the world is Potosi; it is situated
on an elevation thirteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, in
a region of perpetual snow; it has always been worked in a very rude
manner, yet it has already produced $250,000,000, and shows no signs of
exhaustion. The annual product of the silver mines of South America, at
the present time, is estimated to be $22,000,000. Their total product,
to the present time, has amounted to $2,430,000,000. The silver mines
of Mexico were wrought long before Cortez revealed them to the eyes of
Europe, in 1513. Their annual product, at the present time, is estimated
to be $30,000,000. The total product, to the present time, has amounted
to $3,834,000,000. In 1850 Nevada was not reckoned among the
silver-producing countries of the world. In 1867 she could proudly point
to an annual product of $13,000,000; but