# Did cashiers and tellers suffer adverse effects from silver coins? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 18, 2006, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057 "2006-07-18T19:38:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/1 "2006-07-18T19:38:42Z")
I own a small sack of silver coins, and recall that when I counted them, there was a faint “silvery” smell left on my fingers after handling them. Since silver can be toxic, this led me to wonder if, back in the day when silver coins were commonly used in commerce, if cashiers and tellers ever experienced ill effects from handling all that silver. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/2 "2006-07-18T19:49:39Z")
Elemental silver is non-toxic as far is I know. Unless you’re a werewolf. I think some salts of silver were shown to be carcigenic. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/3 "2006-07-18T19:54:56Z")
A wikipedia search shows it might turn you into a [smurf](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria) . ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/4 "2006-07-18T20:08:53Z")
I’ve worn a silver ring on my finger every day for the past ten years, and never had a bad effect. Are you thinking of “quicksilver” or mercury. Cause that would be toxic, which is one reason why coins aren’t made of it. The fact that it’s liquid at room temperature is another reason. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/5 "2006-07-18T20:19:42Z")
Silver is toxic if you’re a bacterium, which is one reason it is used for cutlery. If it were toxic to humans, it wouldn’t be used for cutlery to this day. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/6 "2006-07-18T21:05:37Z")
As a kid we used to have fun putting mercury on silver coins (the only kind around then) with our fingers! Made them slippery and shiny. As a teenager I did a stint trying panning for gold in the Sierras. Brought our tailings to the campfire, added mercury (to absorb the gold) and then burned off the mercury to reveal the (very little) precious gold. Had mercury on our hands and also breathed the fumes! Probably why I’m so fucked up now. But, it was fun while it lasted. (In two weeks we probably got about an ounce of gold which was at the time $36 an ounce.) ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/7 "2006-07-18T21:36:14Z")
[QUOTE=daffyduck] Silver is toxic if you’re a bacterium, which is one reason it is used for cutlery. If it were toxic to humans, it wouldn’t be used for cutlery to this day. [/QUOTE] Nor jewelry. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/8 "2006-07-18T21:45:27Z")
Silver in coins is in a non-toxic form that I can’t imagine causing difficulties, even if you handled lots of silver coins habitually (otherwise we would have had an epidemic of argyria among bank tellers in years past). One potential source of toxicity (as noted in the wikipedia link) is colloidal silver, which is promoted by fringe practitioners as an antibiotic/cure-all. It can cause [a lot of trouble.](http://www.together.net/~rjstan/rose1.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sal\_Ammoniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/9 "2006-07-18T22:11:53Z")
Worth mentioning that silver has antiseptic properties. Here’s a [cite](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2895140&dopt=Abstract). Or a cite of a cite, if you prefer. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-cashiers-and-tellers-suffer-adverse-effects-from-silver-coins/365057/10 "2006-07-18T22:15:55Z")
[QUOTE=Folly] Elemental silver is non-toxic as far is I know. Unless you’re a werewolf. [/QUOTE] Or you cross the Lone Ranger.