Find the stamp.
It is small, often worn, and almost never where people look first. Use your phone camera zoomed all the way in. Good light matters more than magnification.
Rings
- Where the mark hides
- Inside the band
Chains and bracelets
- Where the mark hides
- On the clasp, or a small tag beside it
Flatware
- Where the mark hides
- Back of the handle, near the end
Bowls, trays, tea sets
- Where the mark hides
- Underside of the base
Earrings
- Where the mark hides
- On the post or the back of the clip
Coins
- Where the mark hides
- No stamp. Go by the year and the type
Stamps that mean real silver.
999 · .999 · FINE SILVER
- Purity
- 99.9%
- What it tells you
- Bullion bars and rounds. Too soft for most jewelry.
958 · BRITANNIA
- Purity
- 95.8%
- What it tells you
- British higher standard. Less common, worth more per gram.
925 · .925 · STERLING · STER
- Purity
- 92.5%
- What it tells you
- The one you will see most. Standard for jewelry and flatware.
900 · COIN SILVER
- Purity
- 90%
- What it tells you
- Older American pieces, and US coins dated 1964 and earlier.
835 · 830 · 800
- Purity
- 83.5 / 83 / 80%
- What it tells you
- Continental European. Common on German, Italian and Dutch work.
British pieces often carry pictures instead of numbers. A walking lion, called a lion passant, means sterling. Beside it sits a town mark and a date letter telling you where and when it was assayed.
Stamps that mean plated.
Plated pieces are silver-coloured through the part you can see, and the actual silver is measured in microns. It is not worth refining, which is why nobody buys it by weight.
EP · EPNS · EPBM · EPC
- What it actually means
- Electroplated. NS is nickel silver, BM is Britannia metal.
SILVER PLATE · SILVER ON COPPER
- What it actually means
- Says it outright.
A1 · AA · TRIPLE PLATE · QUADRUPLE PLATE
- What it actually means
- Plating grades, not purity. Quadruple plate is still plate.
IS · INTERNATIONAL SILVER
- What it actually means
- A maker's name, not a standard. Usually plate.
WM ROGERS · 1847 ROGERS BROS · ONEIDA
- What it actually means
- Look antique and formal, almost always plate. The most common disappointment I see.
Words that mean no silver at all.
These catch people out because the name contains the word silver. Every one is a copper, nickel and zinc alloy with zero silver content.
- German Silver
- Nickel Silver
- Alpaca / Alpacca
- Paktong
- Tibetan Silver
- Montana Silver
Five tests you can do at home.
- 01
Magnet
Silver is not magnetic. If it grabs hard there is steel in there. Passing proves nothing on its own, because brass, copper and nickel are not magnetic either.
- 02
Look at the wear points
Edges, high spots, the back of a spoon bowl. Plating wears through first and what shows underneath is yellow, coppery or dull grey. Solid silver stays the same colour all the way down.
- 03
Ice
Silver conducts heat better than any other metal. An ice cube melts noticeably faster on it than on steel or plate.
- 04
How it tarnishes
Real silver tarnishes to an even black or grey and polishes back. Plating blotches, flakes, or goes green at the seams.
- 05
The ring
Tap sterling flatware and it rings for a second or two, high and clear. Plate over base metal thuds. Do not try this on anything with stones.
The only conclusive answers are an acid test, which marks the piece, or an XRF analyser, which does not. We use XRF, it takes seconds, it reads the actual alloy, and you watch it happen.
Weighted and loaded pieces.
Candlesticks, knife handles, trophy cups and some shakers are a thin sterling shell filled with plaster, pitch or cement so they stand up. They are usually stamped weighted, reinforced or cement filled right next to the sterling mark.
The mark is honest. The scale is not. A pair of sterling candlesticks can be mostly filler by weight, and sterling-handled knives have a stainless blade in a hollow handle.
Melt is the floor, not the answer.
Spot is the market price of pure metal, and melt is what the raw silver in a piece is worth at that price. That is the floor for anything solid. Plenty of silver is worth considerably more, and sending those pieces to a refiner is how people lose money without noticing.
- Tiffany & Co., Georg Jensen, Cartier, Hermès
- Complete flatware services in a named pattern
- Antique pieces with a full set of hallmarks
- Pre-1965 US coins and anything with numismatic value
- Native American and studio work with a maker's mark