Silver as found in nature tends to come as dark veining in rocky ores. On occasion though enough of the metal pooled in one area that the excess couldn’t be soaked up into the rock. This allowed the formation of pure crystals that branch out like metal leaves known as dendrites. When miners come across these rare crystals they’re sent on to be sold into the minerals market where collectors snap them up with the finest specimens winding up in museum galleries.

While those natural examples are too rare and valuable to be listed here luckily we have the even purer version that comes from a laboratory!