Described herein are methods of making metallic or elemental silver in the solid state. These methods generally include a step of forming an at least substantially solvent-free solid state reaction mixture that includes a silver-containing compound and an organic acid, followed by heating the reaction mixture at a temperature and for a time effective to form metallic silver from a cationic silver species of the silver-containing compound. Also described herein are metallic or elemental silver produced by these methods.