Left metal radical — simplified from 金 for left-stacking. Anchors 银 firmly in the metals family alongside 铁 (iron), 铜 (copper), 钢 (steel), 锡 (tin). The presence of this radical is a near-guarantee that the word is a metal or metalwork.
Right 艮 supplies the sound — gěn shifted to yín, a substantial Mandarin drift but regular for this rime in the original Old-Chinese phonology. Same phonetic series: 根 (root), 跟 (heel), 痕 (scar), 限 (limit) — the shared core makes the family easy to spot.
