Connoisseur's Choice: Wire Silver, Kongsberg, Norway & Wire Gold, Ground Hog Mine, Gilman, Colorado.

The article reports that precious metals like gold and silver have been used for currency around the Mediterranean since at least the third millennium BC. The wire form is an unusual and relatively rare mineral habit characterized by elongate hairlike growths with longitudinally parallel striations and wiry, sometimes contorted, tendrils. Silver is a highly malleable and ductile metal with a brilliant white luster, a result of its excellent reflectance across the entire visible spectrum.