Economic value

Silver markets flourished in the Middle East since antiquity. Silver was casted and re-casted again and again as women bought jewelry in times of prosperity and sold the pieces in times of despair. Sometimes a silversmith bought back his own pieces. In Pharaonic Egypt, silver was scarce and seldom used. Silver was even valued more precious than gold during the greater part of Pharaonic history. For the nomads in The West Asian and North African region in later periods, it became a good investment. It was relatively cheap, but kept its value. Silver displayed a person’s wealth, her social position and her worth to her family as new pieces of jewelry were for example given to her whenever she gave birth. The silver was valued by weight. Sometimes a woman was given several kilograms of silver jewelry on her wedding which remained her personal possession throughout the marriage. Even nowadays the pieces were sold by weight of the silver, not considering the workmanship. However, the intrinsic value of the pieces is not enough to describe its worth. In Egypt silver has been hallmarked relatively early when compared to other countries in the region. These hallmarks give silver content and a relative way to date the pieces. Also Egyptian hallmarks sometimes display the name of the smith.