[emeritus]

I remember reading an article in a power journal that recounted how, during WWII, the shortage of copper in the USA led to the windings of some new power transformers urgently needed to supply electricity to a factory supplying the war effort, were made from silver bullion from the US Federal Reserve. As they weighed many tons and were operated at lots of kV, they were secure enough. The silver was reclaimed on cessation of hostilities. Apparently they exhibited low "copper losses" and had excellent on-load regulation, as might be expected.

A world of difference from low level signals where the resistive losses in the wires will be negligible, although I am sure I read a review many years ago of someone selling pure silver wires for connecting the cartridge of your pick-up to the amplifier, I think via a transformer that also used silver wire.