# Silver in Polaroid film?



## powerbuy (Nov 3, 2008)

I have about 60 boxes of unused Polaroid Spectra film, 20 pictures to each box. These normally have decent resale value on Ebay, but unfortunately all of these boxes have been previously opened and the film is not in it's aluminum protective packaging. This essentially destroys the retail value, as while the packages appear to be good and unexposed, I cannot really guarantee this.

Is there a decent amount of silver in this film? Any recommended way to extract the silver from all of these easily and economically? Or should I thro them on Ebay "as-is" and see what the market decides?


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## butcher (Nov 4, 2008)

if they have some silver them it can be recovered, probably wont amount to a whole lot of money as silver is fairly cheap, there is plenty of info on this forum of how to process them, using caustic nitric acid and other chemicals. these chemicals not so cheap,and takes studying processes, fun if you want to do it for hobby,and are interested, I dont know what you can get on ebay if you think they arent usable as film, I wouldnt mind having some film to expieriment on but would have no Idea what they would be worth. and people on ebay seem to think if it has gold or silver in it is worth a fortune, they have no idea they can buy 999 pure gold for spot and get what they paid for at a fair price. there are others on this forum who can probbably trll you about how much silver you can expect from them.


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## viacin (Nov 4, 2008)

There is silver in them, no doubt about that. It is added to the reagent. But it is probably a trace amount. One tip: peel one apart, there should be a tiny bulge going across the bottom of the film. This is the reagent, and where your silver should be. The rest of the film is layers of plastic, and some acids.


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## SilverFox (Nov 4, 2008)

I would bet those would go for more mula on a online auction then for scrap.

Like old vintage dive Equipment, Camera buffs eat the older stuff up.


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## viacin (Nov 4, 2008)

Yes, but the film is not in it's aluminum packaging, which scares a lot camera guru's off. The silver content is very small, I'm sure. It would probably bring more if sold at a discount on ebay. 

:idea: heh, advertise it as silver scrap on ebay and it will go for a insane amount. Did I just say that? I hope not.


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## Juan Manuel Arcos Frank (Nov 7, 2008)

Viacin and SilverFox are right,there is silver in that film..and you can recover it..the process is simple...you just need to get some fixer (chemically is sodium thiosulphate)..in a photo lab,a newspaper or a X Ray gabinet you can get easily...you just need 1 litter.

Dip the Polaraoid film in the fixer and all silver salts are going to dissolve in the fixer,then recover the silver using the zinc process.Zinc process is right here in the forum.

If you have any doubt just let me know.

Have a nice day.

Manuel


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## meatheadmerlin (Mar 28, 2019)

I am in doubt as to the silver content of Polaroid film.
It uses a completely different process than black/white and color films.
I highly doubt you can simply dip it in fixer to remove any silver,
it simply doesn't function like traditional film and photo paper.

I found this entry in The Jeweler's Dictionary (Second Edition)
that describes Polaroid film.

The book is published in 1950 by Chilton Company
for The Jeweler's Circular-Keystone
and states:


> Polaroid
> Trade name for polarizing film which consists of
> innumerable tiny crystals of a quinine, iodine compound,
> all aligned parallel in a transparent plastic sheet.
> ...



the Wikipedia states that quinine
comes from the bark of the cinchona tree
and gives this formula for it: C20H24N2O2


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