WEIRD FACTS ABOUT
SILVER

curly underline

SILVER

An English pound was originally the value of one Troy pound of sterling silver, hence the name: Pound Sterling.

Gold medals at the Olympics are only about six per cent gold. Most of the rest is silver.

Before the advent of digital photography, half the silver mined in the world was used in photographic applications. Now the figure is under 20 per cent.

It is frequently asserted that there is no English word that rhymes with 'silver'. That is untrue: a chilver is a ewe-lamb.


| Share |

Related links:

BRAHE
The 16th-century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe wore an artificial nose attached with cement after he... MORE

ELEMENTS
According to a survey conducted at the University of Barcelona and published in 2008 in... MORE

TUNA
A Japanese seafood distributor paid £120,000 for a 445lb blue-fin tuna at an auction in... MORE

You may also be interested in:

BACHELORS
In ancient Sparta, men who were still unmarried at the age of 30 forfeited the... MORE

LOTTERIES
On 11 January 1569, the winning numbers were drawn in Britain's first National Lottery. The price... MORE

QUEUEING
A world record for the longest queue for a toilet was set in 2009 by... MORE

DOLLY
Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, was born... MORE

STILTON
The earliest known recipe for Stilton cheese was published by Richard Bradley in 1723. It takes... MORE

DONKEY
A jenny is a female donkey; a jack is a male. Donkey itself is an... MORE

LIECHTENSTEIN
Liechtenstein is the last survivor of the 343 states that once made up the Holy... MORE

HELLS ANGELS
A German student was arrested in the town of Allershausen in June 2010 after making... MORE

PEEING
In 1996, the villagers of Stigtomta, in southern Sweden, staged a Pee Outdoors Day in... MORE

TRIVIA
If you wish to praise this site, the word you seek may well be 'adoxography'... MORE

SLAVES
Before the abolition of slavery, Brazil had more slaves than any other country in North... MORE

OFFICE
The 1809 Sale of Offices Act was passed in haste as a result of a... MORE

GARDENING
The first recorded conviction for drunken driving while in charge of a lawnmower was in... MORE

SKUA
The skua dives at its victims and eats the food they sick up in fright,... MORE

EXORCISM
Exorcisms in the Church of England are carried out through the Deliverance Ministry, created in... MORE