The entire story of the Holy Grail has always kind of amused me, even when it's not being ably parodied by Monty Python (why yes, that is still my favorite Camelot movie).
Because, the thing is, the cup that was used at the Last Supper, assuming it happened, would have been a simple pottery or wood chalice. Nobody there was rich.
But, of course, the Medieval grail stories speak of a silver cup. In the book this is a plot point.
In reality?
Covering relics with silver was a thing which happened throughout the Middle Ages. In the Eastern church there is also a habit of covering icons with silver. Gold was also used when the church could afford it.
So, the writers of the Medieval romances would obviously have assumed that a relic that important would warrant a silver, or even gold covering. This then, as relics became less important, shifted to the cup being made of silver.
Most likely what they were envisioning was that the original simple vessel was encased in a silver reliquary to both elevate and protect it. Which brings up the interesting possibility:
There may at one point have actually been several grails floating around Europe and it wouldn't have been considered odd. Just as there were multiple pieces of the true cross, so there might have been multiple pieces of the holy grail. Most likely none of them were real (it's said that you could build a ship with all the claimed pieces of the true cross).
In the 4th century, though, that habit wouldn't have started yet...
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