Real silver vs. sterling silver

A. Fine silver is 99.9 percent pure or more, but it is very soft and unsuitable for most uses, Katherina. Sterling silver is defined as 92.5 percent pure or higher. Sometimes, as you note, 95 percent pure silver is sold; this has more silver than the minimum it needs to be called sterling but it's still sterling.

The remaining 5 to 7-1/2 percent is usually copper because this has been found to be the best metal to alloy with the silver to not discolor it, while making it hard.

It is generally considered that the cause of silver tarnishing is sulfides in the air rather than oxygen. Maybe you lived in an non-industrialized village in Peru and you now live where there are a lot of diesel trucks and other sources of sulfides?

The jewelry manufacturers try various preservatives to keep the silver from tarnishing, including rhodium plating, lacquers, and corrosion inhibitor treatments; as far as I know, there is no 'standard' saying that the jeweler can or can't use these techniques, so it is difficult to know which is any were used on the jewelry you are buying. Good luck.

A. I'm writing this in response to the first letter with this topic which was written in 2004 by Katherina Kirby. Three years ago, I bought a silver cross pendant on a trip-of-a-lifetime to Peru. I wear this cross everyday. Last night when I took it off, it accidentally went down the overflow drain of my bathroom lavatory. (Note to myself: NEVER, EVER again take something precious to me off over a sink!)

At the time I bought the cross, I was with a Canadian friend who has made many trips to Peru because of her interest and business of breeding, raising, training and selling Peruvian Horses. My friend told me that Peruvian silver was very high quality and sold for very modest prices. Out of curiosity, once my plumber rescued my cross from the overflow drain, I checked the silver content of the rope chain I wear it on (purchased on Amazon) and the cross. The rope chain is stamped 92.5 Italy; the cross is stamped 97 with what I think is the letter P behind it. The rope chain does tarnish; however, even though I wear my cross to work outside on the farm when I get hot and sweaty, it has never tarnished; all I need to do to clean it is rinse it off with plain old water. It did suffer some scratch marks from the plumber's struggle to rescue it.

A. A silver plated item has a thin coating (a few ten-thousandths of an inch) of silver plated onto a base metal of lower value than silver. A sterling silver item is solid silver, 92.5 percent or more pure, through and through. Thus there is far, far more silver in a sterling silver item than in a silver plated item.

Very expensive x-ray fluorescence scrap sorters [on eBay or Amazon] can distinguish one from the other, or test kits can be easily used if you scratch the item to get through the coating. But I don't know any quick, inexpensive, non-destructive (no scratch) way to know if the item is sterling unless it is stamped "sterling" or "925". Sorry.

A. It is solid sterling silver and will always remain solid silver (92.5 percent pure), Jennifer. Silver cannot rust but it does tarnish, and sometimes the manufacturer will coat it with some kind of tarnish preventer to keep it shiny until sold. The tarnish preventer doesn't last forever but will last longer if you don't shower with it. Some people like the natural silver finish better anyway, but it still isn't a good idea to wear jewelry when swimming, bathing, or cleaning.

A. Sterling silver is at least 92.5 percent pure silver. It is solid silver. Silver plated items are less valuable and less expensive because they only have a skin of silver on them -- the inside is made of copper, brass, nickel-silver (this is just a name and it contains no silver), or other metals that are less expensive than silver.

A. For people who want to know the difference between silver and silver plated, real silver, rhodium plated etc.

Real silver:

When silver is mined it's 99.9 % pure metal. To make a jewelry nickel is added to drop down the purity and to make the metal stronger as 99.9 % silver is really soft and can be easily damaged.
Most of the silver jewelry has .925 stamp but that does not really mean its really 92.5 silver.

So that's why it's been called .925 or 92.5

Difference of Silver Plated and Real silver is that the real silver either .925 or .950 has more darker color than the silver plated. its because the Plated one has aluminium and nickel mixture in the item. so that's why its shinier than the pure silver and harder.

There is also Rhodium Plated Silver Jewelry on the market too. This type of jewelry is just like a Gold Jewelry. Shiny, looks better and platinum look.
Now a days Chinese jewelry called Rhodium Plated but in reality it is not. as Rhodium is an expensive product and it cost around $400 USD a gram. So do you think Chinese people use quality?
They use electrolized (don't remember the actual name now) ... to make the jewelry look like Rhodium plated.
Most of them is actually a copper or nickel under plating.
When you see a jewelry, ring, earrings or a pendant with this type of plating and the price is so cheap don't even bother to buy it. As its most probably not even silver. Just a good plating.

We are manufacturing here in Mexico and use 100% 92.5 or .925 and .950 silver in our jewelry. Some of our products have Real Rhodium Plating and to produce it is really expensive.

Why silver becomes dark?

Some people's pH is higher than others and as our body produces acid (chemicals) they tarnish the Silver but with a simple pass over with a soft cloth the tarnish should go away. Of course if it's real silver. If not it would always dark and dark until it gets oxidized.

James Steven
- Cancun Mexico

A. Hi, Pamela. EPNS means electroplated nickel-silver -- in other words, silver plating on a base of nickel-silver (nickel-silver is a bit of a misnomer, and contains no silver). But for the rest, you'll probably need to go to a library and get some books on silver hallmarks, although you could try www.925-1000.com/americansilver__Icon.html first.

These are hundreds of thousands of hallmarks; sorry, but posting verbal descriptions of hallmarks here has proven to be ineffectual time and again for 20 years, and this is a metal finishing site not a hallmarking or antiquing site. Good luck.

Regards,

A. I'm a student of jewelry, just Googling the merits of casting with various silvers. . . The post at the top of this page, discussing fine versus alloyed silver, refers to silver of 95% purity as Sterling--actually, I believe 950 parts silver makes it Britannia Silver, as assayed in Great Britain but generally unrecognized in the US: technically, it's not Sterling. That's all.

A. The person from Mexico uses nickel in the silver mix to bring it down from .999, to .925. This practice was stopped for the most part in the USA because a lot of people are allergic to nickel. Also the Italian silver is usually plated with Rhodium. While Rhodium is a form of platinum it is still a plating that will eventually wear off. When it does you might as well scrap the piece.

A. Hello there,

I see that quite a few people have asked how to determine the percentage of silver in items.

My advise is to not blindly trust the hallmarks on your items,
This because anyone can buy these stamps online and hallmark their own metal as being 925 or higher silver.

The way I personally test silver , and has worked every time,
is with "silver testing solution".
this is a light red solution which will show different colors which correspond to the percentage of silver.

With the common testing solutions,
you will notice the following:

*Pure 98% fine silver or higher: The drop will soon turn Bright blood red. (the drop will actually look like real blood) and leave a gray white stain behind.

*Sterling 925 silver: the drop will turn dark red, and leave a darker brownish stain behind.

*.800 or lower: the drop will turn chocolate brown, and leave a dark brown stain behind.

Now What if it could be silver plated only?

well, the way to determine that, is to scrape away a bit of the outer layer, (with a knife or sandpaper) and drop a small drop of testing solution on the cleaned area.

Then you will soon see what the inside is composed of.

I hope I could help some people here,

Greetings,

and enjoy your Silver!

J.

A.  Hi, Erica. If other silver rings turn your finger black, this one is likely to as well.

Sterling silver is jewelry that is at least 92.5% pure silver. Except for the fact that it's stamped "sterling", 'solid silver' is vague -- under other circumstances it could mean solid as opposed to plated, it could mean 99.9% pure or more. I wouldn't trust "solid silver" to mean much, but in this case it's only sales chatter since the item is already identified as sterling. Good luck.

Regards,