How to Tell Real 925 Sterling Silver

A "925" stamp is the most common mark in a jewelry case and one of the least explained. Here is what it actually means, what it does not guarantee, and how to check a piece yourself before you buy it.

What 925 means

Sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver. The remaining 7.5% is usually copper. That is all the number refers to: 925 parts silver per 1,000.

Pure silver is too soft to hold a stone or survive daily wear. A ring made of it would bend out of round within a season. The copper adds hardness. It also brings the one trait people complain about most, which is that sterling tarnishes. That turns out to be useful, and we will come back to it.

Reading the marks

You are looking for two different things, and most people only look for one.

The purity mark says what the metal claims to be. It appears as 925, .925, S925, STER or STERLING. On a ring it is usually inside the shank. On a pendant or earring it is on the back, on the bail, or on a small tag.

The maker's mark says who is making that claim. It is a name, initials or a registered symbol. This is the mark that matters more, because a purity stamp with no maker behind it is anonymous. If the metal turns out not to be what it says, there is nobody to go back to.

A piece stamped 925 with no maker's mark at all is not automatically fake. It is unaccountable, which is a different problem and still worth noticing.

Four checks you can do yourself

The magnet. Silver is not magnetic. If a magnet pulls firmly, there is a ferrous metal under the surface. A weak pull or none is a pass, not a proof, because plenty of base metals are not magnetic either.

Weight and warmth. Silver is dense, so a piece feels heavier than it looks. It also conducts heat unusually well, which is why sterling goes from cold to body temperature in your hand almost immediately. Light, hollow and slow to warm are all worth a second look.

Tarnish. This is the most reliable everyday sign. Real sterling darkens over time, especially where it touches skin, perfume, lotion or anything containing sulfur. A silver-colored piece that has sat in an open dish for two years and stayed bright is probably plated, or not silver at all.

Wear at the edges. Plating goes first on high points: the shoulders of a ring, the edge of a bail, the back of an earring where it rubs. If a warmer or greyer color is showing through anywhere, you are looking at a coating over something else.

Acid testing and XRF analysis both work, and both belong with a jeweler. There is no reason to buy an acid kit for one necklace when any local jeweler will test it for you.

Words that sound like silver and are not

• Silver-tone, silver-finish, silver-colored. These describe a color. They claim no silver content whatsoever.
• Silver plated. A thin layer of silver over a base metal. It wears through, and it cannot be re-sized or repaired the way solid silver can.
• German silver, nickel silver, alpaca. Copper, nickel and zinc. Despite all three names, there is no silver in them.
• Tibetan or Bali silver. Unregulated terms. Some pieces sold this way are sterling and some contain very little silver. The stamp, not the name, is what tells you.

The stones are a separate question

Metal and stone are graded independently, and "gemstone" on its own is doing very little work. There are four categories worth keeping straight.

Natural stones formed in the ground and were cut. Treated stones are natural but have been heated or otherwise improved, which is common, accepted and should still be disclosed. Lab-created stones are chemically the same material as the natural stone, grown in a lab. Simulated stones only look like the stone they imitate, and are usually glass or cubic zirconia.

None of these is dishonest in itself. Selling one as another is. A seller should be able to tell you which of the four you are holding without hesitating.

For what it is worth, here is our own answer: every gemstone in our line is natural, with one exception. Our green quartz is lab-created. We would rather say that plainly than let the word "gemstone" cover it.

Five questions worth asking before you buy

1. Is this solid sterling, or silver plated over another metal?
2. Whose maker's mark is on the piece?
3. Is the stone natural, treated, lab-created or simulated?
4. Does the price include the chain, or is the chain sold separately?
5. What happens if the ring size is wrong?

A seller who cannot answer these five is telling you something useful.

Tarnish is not damage

Tarnish is a surface reaction, not decay. It comes off, and the silver underneath is unchanged. A soft polishing cloth handles most of it in a minute.

To slow it down: store pieces dry and separately, in a pouch or a closed box rather than an open dish. Keep them away from rubber bands and wool, both of which carry sulfur. Put jewelry on after perfume, lotion and hairspray rather than before. Take it off for swimming pools, hot tubs and household cleaning products, where chlorine and bleach do cause real damage.

How our pieces are marked

Every Joryel Vera piece is 925 sterling silver and carries both marks: the purity stamp and our own JV mark. Joryel Vera has been drawing these designs since 1987, and they are carried by more than 250 independent jewelry stores across the United States. We are members of AGTA, RJC and IJO.

Where a pendant needs a chain, the chain is included. Shipping is free on every order, with no minimum.

If you are looking at a piece somewhere else and are not sure what you are looking at, the five questions above will get you most of the way there.