In olden days, silver was used to make coins in many kingdoms. The practice of using silver coins slowly gained popularity. But silver was a rare metal. Later it was found out that the cost of silver used for making these coins was a lot higher than the value of these coins. But, there was a solution to this problem-add another element to silver!
Finally, after a lot of experiments, it was found out that copper could be mixed with silver to make coins that looked like silver, which was much cheaper than the older practice. Since then, copper-silver alloy is used to make silver coins.
Today, if a silver coin is actually made of pure silver, the metal would cost more than 20 times the value of the coin. However coins of pure silver are still available. People buy them as an investment.
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