Sterling Silver
Also: 925 silver, Sterling Silver, 925/1000 silver
Sterling silver is a silver alloy containing 92.5% fine silver (925/1000) — the standard for cutlery, jewellery and many collector items.
Sterling silver is the most widely used silver alloy for household and jewellery items worldwide. It consists of 92.5% fine silver and 7.5% of other metals — usually copper. From this comes the common 925 stamp, which states the fineness in thousandths.
Why not pure silver?
Fine silver (999) is very soft and hardly holds its shape for cutlery, rings or jugs. Adding copper makes sterling silver harder and more durable without losing its noble lustre. The trade-off: copper encourages tarnishing — the dark silver-sulphide layer that forms in air and can be polished away.
The silver value of sterling silver
Only the fine-silver content counts towards the material value. A 200-gram piece of sterling-silver cutlery therefore contains 200 g × 0.925 = 185 g of fine silver. This portion is valued at the current silver price. For mixed lots — such as cutlery with both 800 and 925 pieces — the melt value calculator handles the conversion for you; for individual silver holdings the silver calculator is well suited.
Common silver finenesses
| Stamp | Fine silver | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 999 | 99.9% | Investment bars, coins |
| 925 | 92.5% | Sterling silver: jewellery, cutlery |
| 835 | 83.5% | Older cutlery (mainly Europe) |
| 800 | 80.0% | Cutlery, everyday silverware |
Beware: silver-plated is not silver
Many everyday objects are only silver-plated — they carry a wafer-thin silver layer over a base metal and stamps such as "90" or "100" (grams of silver plating per 24 pieces). Their precious-metal value is minimal. Sterling silver, by contrast, is solid and bears the 925 fineness stamp.
In brief
Sterling silver (925) is the hardness compromise that makes silver fit for everyday use. For valuation, only the fine-silver content of 92.5% counts — multiplied by the weight and the current silver price, this gives the material value.