Copper and silver are the earliest worked metals in Sardinia: there is evidence of their use from the first half of the 4th millennium B. C., in the sphere of the Ozieri facies of the Final Neolithic. The use of gold is represented by a solitary artefact belonging to the Late Eneolithic (Beaker). Lead, however, appears roughly around the mid 3rd millennium B. C. The objective of the present study is to determine whether the introduction of metals – and in particular silver - exerted an influence over social, political and economic structures of Prehistoric Sardinia; in particular the changes occurring between the Neolithic and the Eneolithic periods, the influence of metal articles and metallurgy on manufacturing and economy and whether it was a counterpoint between local human groups of Neolithic tradition (Filigosa and Abealzu) and groups extraneous to this tradition (Monte Claro and Bell Beaker) in the 3rd millennium will be examined. The primary sources of the finds and the available archaeo-metallurgical data are analysed, together with new analyses of unpublished material. Silver represents approximately 22 % of artefacts recovered in Sardinia from the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods; of these 4% are attributable to the first half of the 4th millennium B. C. and 8% to the second half of the 4th millennium B. C.; the rest belong to the 3rd millennium B. C. It is interesting to note that, as for copper, in the early phases of metallurgy (4th millennium B. C.) a consistent quantity of finds come from settlements, whereas from the middle phases of the Eneolithic artefacts in silver are almost exclusively referable to funerary contexts. A further motive for reflection is provided by the presence of a solitary silver artefact among the metal finds from the multi-layered shrine site at Monte d’Accoddi: a small disc recovered amongst finds from the Middle Eneolithic.