Difference between pure silver and sterling silver

A. Dear Sarah, pure silver is soft like lead, and as such, not suitable for charms, cups, chains or much else, because it bends, breaks and stretches too much. For this reason, manufacturing jewelers and silversmiths mix copper with it to give it some strength. A side effect of this is the tarnishing that goes with the inclusion of copper. Answer. Assemble your bracelet then take it all to a silver electroplater and have it all plated in pure silver. I did this with my wife's charms, and they look great. Tend to stay that way too!

A. Sterling silver means at least 92.5 percent silver, Dianne; see letter 27488 for more info. "Silver" without any adjective may not mean anything definite; it might even mean nothing more than "silvery in color". The lack of shine is probably more an issue of how they were polished (how smooth they are) than the purity of the silver though.

I suspect it's possible to polish them with metal polish and a buffing wheel in a Dremel ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] tool, but I don't know if that's really practical for you or only for your jeweler to do for you. Good luck.

A. As previously mentioned, 'sterling silver' has a specific meaning: an alloy with 92.5 percent silver in it. There is, of course, no such thing as absolutely 100 percent pure anything, but 'solid silver' might mean "4 nines" (99.99% pure) or maybe not.

The purer the silver gets, the softer and less useable it would be for a watch case. So, to my limited knowledge, the term 'solid silver' has no exact meaning for a watch case -- but I'm not a jeweler and could well be in error.

A. You say
"there is only 99.99 % pure silver, there is no 100% pure anything"

There is 100% pure gold
24 gold is 100% pure.

Hi Peter.
It's a semantics issue, not a practical problem, but it is not possible to remove every single last atom of contamination from anything. Since, as you say, 24 karat means 100% pure, there is actually 23.99 karat gold, maybe 23.99999, maybe even more trailing nines -- but no 24 karat gold :-)

Luck & Regards,

A. Hi, Jennette. A true expert might possibly be able to tell the purity of silver from its appearance, but I rather doubt it. After 40 years in the plating industry, not only can I not estimate the purity of the silver plating, there are still occasional items where I can't even say whether they are nickel plated or silver plated :-)   Sorry, I think an amateur has no chance of determining much about an item's make-up from just the appearance.

How do you know the stuff is "silver" rather than stainless steel if it looks like stainless steel? Or maybe you are using "silver" as slang for "flatware"?

Regards,

A. Hi, Earl

Silver is a semi-precious metal. Although the value of precious metals and semi-precious metals varies, for round numbers figure a pound of silver is worth about as much as an ounce of gold.

Sterling silver is 92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent metals of little value. 99.99 percent pure silver would be worth about 99.99/92.5 times as much as sterling silver. But the point that is made above is that when someone just says something is "silver", it would be dicey to assume that they mean it is 100 percent solid silver. "Sterling silver" has a fixed legal and commercial meaning; "silver" doesn't, and might even just mean "silvery colored".

Regards,

A. Hi, Karol,

Can you try to express your question in terms of what has already been said, so that we can better understand where the difficulty lies and keep moving forward? If we just keep repeating pretty much the same question and answer, none of us is on the best part of our learning curve :-)

Silver is a semi-precious metallic element. Silver is readily available 99.9% pure and even purer. Sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver with the other 7.5% of the jewelry being copper or other less expensive metal.

"Regular" silver has no meaning, kemosabe. When the Lone Ranger shouted "Hi Ho, Silver, away!", his horse usually caught up with the bad guys; the horse wasn't a frozen-in-place metal sculpture :-)

Regards,

Silver Test Kits

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Amazon

(affil links)

Hi, Bob. Thanks for the kind words! ... but running this website is a wonderful gig that I could never complain about :-)

There are expensive x-ray fluorescence machines and atomic absorption spectrophotometers ⇦ this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] that can determine silver content exactly and positively, but there are also test acids and test stones which I understand do a good job very inexpensively. See letter 27488 (especially the June 26, 2009 response) and letter 42765. Good luck.

Regards,

"Hand-Held X-Ray Analyzer

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Amazon

(affil links)

A. I thank the author of this page for all the valuable information about silver, sterling silver, silver plating, etc. Your page is very informative and you have been very clear about what sterling silver is. I'm so perplexed about how many people keep asking the very same questions even though you have explained it very clear and simple each time.

To the people that ask about other 'markings' found on inherited items or gifts; Some of this markings could be markings of the designer, artist, country of origin- etc. Sometimes all you need to do is "google" the markings and you'll be surprised how much information you will find.

I have sterling .925 silver jewelry (some new, some very old) and I have noticed nothing happens to it if you bathe or shower with it. In some cases, it might turn a little dark but I clean it-buff it- with a soft cloth and it shines like new again. You should also be able to find silver "polishing" products at your jewelers.

Best Regards,
Leah

---

 Thanks Leah!

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Cat and Yvonne,
Fine silver is very rarely used for jewelry worn regularly due to the fact that it is fairly soft and easily damaged. This is true of antique jewelry as well. Based on this fact, the chances are great that all of your items are sterling silver.

A. Hi Katie. In theory at least, sellers are not allowed to be deceptive. So if it says "sterling silver" it means the item is made of sterling silver -- of the total weight of the thing, 92.5% is silver; there is not just a layer of silver plating. The additional word "solid" is just adspeak.

Regards,

Hi Barbara. We don't get into evaluations here for a number of reasons, but one practical reason is that thousands of people have asked for them here and not a single reader has ever offered one :-)

Sure, if it really is AG999 (99.9% pure silver), like fine silver coins are, it would be worth more as scrap than 92.5% silver. But I don't trust anything from China to be what it says it is; you could take it to a "We Buy Gold" shop and they will tell you. As scrap it's probably worth 30X what you paid for it if it's really AG999. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Keith. "999 fine silver" rings ares available, but I'd be careful about playing amateur dermatologist. I suppose it could be an aggravated case of nickel allergy, but if it goes beyond a little redness and is actually an infection, that's for a doctor to look at, not for me to comment on :-)

Regards,

A. Hi Mikiko. It may be a real watch and it may be real stainless steel, but it's certainly not silver. "Silver finish" means "in my opinion (the opinion of the person calling it 'silver finish'), it looks sort of like silver".

Regards,

Gold test kit

on eBay or

Amazon

(affil links)

A. Answering Leah from San Antonio, TX
I have a hobby as a metal detectorist and have purchased the Gold testing kit PuriTEST Solutions which contains six little bottles of acid with varying strengths for testing gold for 10K, 14K, 18K and 22K, and two additional bottles for testing silver or platinum. According to the SILVER purity tests it lists the silver will change colors based on purity! e.g.,
90%-100% = Dark Red
80%-90% = Light Red or Brownish
65%-75% = Light Green

The test bottles run approx. $9.00 plus shipping @ puritest.com or you can buy the complete kit around $45.00 US.

A. Hi Wendy. Sorry, I'm finding your wording confusing. Is it or is it not stamped "Sterling"? From my scant knowledge it seems that most Brand-Chatillon was sterling. If it's stamped "Sterling", it's sterling silver, i.e., 92.5% silver. If it's not stamped "Sterling" or "925" it's probably silverplate, which is of no intrinsic value. The other numbers can be anything: pattern number 645B, model number 2-7, no. 293 of a run, etc.

Regards,

A. The info below is mainly for US pieces.

If it was made in the last 100 years by a known company and if it's not marked 925 (or 800) or Sterling (or more rarely, STER or STG), the chances are about 1000 to 1, or better, that it's plated and not sterling silver.

Think about it. If a company goes to the expense of making an object out of sterling silver, why would they not mark it as such? If they were solid sterling silver without the proper legal identifying mark, these pieces would be almost impossible to sell. Sterling is far, far, far superior than plate, so why not tell the world that it is sterling?

In doing this for 51 years and having evaluated 1000's of pieces. I have seen only a few sterling objects that weren't properly marked. These were either centuries old or were made as unique pieces by an person working alone. Even those individual artisans usually mark their pieces. They are proud of them - much more so than if they were just plated. They would be stupid not to mark them.

Silver plate will tend to wear off with usage and polishing, especially on the edges and on areas that protrude. Use a magnifier and look closely at these areas. If you can see any layering or a color that is not as white as silver, it is plated. Silver is the whitest metal on the planet when there is no tarnish present. There are more definite ways of testing for silver plate, but most all are somewhat destructive.

As a buyer and refiner, I have to carefully watch out for plated pieces that are fraudulently marked 925 or Sterling, although it doesn't occur that often. Also, we refiners know that a Sterling piece rarely (if, ever) contains the 92.5% silver that it should. The average is usually around 90 to 91% silver. Like karat gold, I have never seen a piece of sterling that exceeded it's stamped value and I can't remember a piece that was even plumb. They always seems to be a bit low. I'm sure there are people out there making plumb sterling pieces. It's just that I have never seen one.

Although most countries of the world have now adopted the 925 mark, most scrap you'll find will be at least several decades old and the marks you see will probably not be that uniform from country to country.

A. Hi Brian. Do you want marks on all items that are not silver to tell you that they are not silver, or do you feel that a craftsperson selling a one-of-a-kind handwork in real silver failed to mark it, or what? I thought Chris Owen's posting was super helpful, so please be specific about the situation you are unhappy with. Thanks!

Regards,

A. Hi Lynda. My understanding is that fine silver plating will tarnish significantly slower than sterling silver. However, I doubt that silver plating would level out those fine polishing lines. Maybe another reader will offer encouragement.

Regards,

A. I agree that the fine silver surface seems to not tarnish as fast as sterling silver. If the lines from polishing are fine enough a good fine silver layer will cover and brighten your jewelry.

A. Hi Thomas. I'm no antiques expert, but from receiving thousands of similar questions on this site over the years, I can say that there are/were many thousands of small manufacturers you'll probably not find much info about. But there is currently a Cassilla Silver Spoon for sale on eBay for $2.99, and some other pieces, none approaching $20, so it's not fabulously valuable.

Regards,

A. Hi Sherry, I'm not a crafter, but I've seen pictures of rings and other custom jewelry made from sterling silver flatware. So, yes, sterling is malleable enough.

Regards,

A. Hi Al. I'm not sure whether you know for sure that it's sterling silver, or if it might just be silverplate and you are using 'sterling' as sort of a visual aid. If it really is sterling, most "We Buy Gold" shops on any street corner will buy it for melting down.

You can certainly list it on eBay or Craigslist, but attics around the country are sagging from old silver service. It used to be very popular and is now very unpopular, with most families, like yours, not interested in it, so silverplate essentially has no value at all. Please see https://www.finishing.com/364/71.shtml#whatToDoWithPlatedSilver

Luck and Regards,