The age embrittlement of ancient silver could be due to discontinuous precipitation of copper from the supersaturated silver-rich silver-copper solid solution during the long sojourn at ambient temperatures. Microstructures of a number of ancient silver samples (500 B.C. to 600 A.D.) have been examined with the optical microscope and by microhardness measurements. The microstructures are compared with the precipitation behavior of modern, artificially aged silver-copper alloys. Based on kinetic data the growth-rate of the precipitating cell at 25 C is estimated to approximate 10 mum/year. The temperature-dependence of the interlameller distance of the segregated copper in the precipitated cell could be used to distinguish between ancient objects (aged at ambient temperatures) and artificially aged modern objects (aged at elevated temperatures).