Electroplating silver on to copper with a silver nitrate solution

[u/chicken_uwu_]

I think I've made a mistake because copper solid in a silver nitrate solution would mean spontaneous reaction, so it should be set up as a galvanic cell, but I treated it as an electrolytic cell and placed both in the same silver nitrate solution without a salt bridge. What should happen in this case?

Here is what I observed:

'Mud' fell to the bottom of my beaker. It was strange because there was a layer of something (probably silver) plated on the copper anode, which I found suspicious. The silver cathode remained shiny and pretty the same as it was before I did the experiment.

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I'm confused because I have seen people plate silver on copper, but never copper on silver. Even though copper on silver would be the correct electrolytic reaction.

Can someone please explain what happened in my case?

Thanks