Where was silver first discovered?

Silver has been used since ancient times, and there are no records stating where it was first found or who discovered it. There is evidence that man was able to separate silver from lead as early as 4,000 BC.

Old World silver from Anatolia is thought to be the first source of mined silver, dating back to 4000 BC Silver from Anatolia provided rich supplies to the craftsmen of the Western cultures in the Near East, Crete and Greece. Silver mining efforts were also documented around 2500 BC, when the Chaldeans used a mining process called "cupellation" to extract silver from lead-silver ores.