What is 925 Silver & how to check?

We are pleased to offer you a range of quality jewellery that we want you to love.

Some of our jewellery is described as being made with 925 Silver, some with silver plate. What is the difference, and how can you tell which one you have?

Silver Plate is a thin coat of silver, covering a base metal, usually steel. It is much cheaper than solid silver and it can wear away to reveal the base metal under the coating.

925 Silver, sometimes called 925 Sterling Silver is 92.5% pure silver with 7.5% alloy, usually copper.

Pure Silver, which is 99.9% silver and 0.1% other metals (such as copper) is too soft to be made into jewellery, so 925 silver is used to make it long lasting.

925 Silver is much more expensive than silver plate or stainless steel, and is not cheap, but it's value does usually increase with time, so is a good investment.

To check you have real 925 Sterling Silver there are two easy tests.

The first is hold a magnet close to the jewellery. If the jewellery is attracted to the magnet it is not 925 silver.

The second test is to rub the silver with a clean soft white cloth. If black marks appear on the white cloth then your jewellery is made of real 925 silver, as the black marks are the silver oxidise where it is exposed to air - which causes silver to tarnish.

Check our descriptions to see if the items you are interested in are 925 silver or silver plate before buying. If you have any questions please get in touch.