TYPES OF SILVER

There are other types of silver and metal alloys that look a lot like silver but don’t quite have the high percentage of silver. These types of silver look the same but are less valuable. You should familiarize yourself with the different metals in the marketplace so that you are aware of what you are getting.

Pure Silver

Pure silver is not 100% silver. It’s usually 99.9% silver, but that’s only because there are many trace elements that cannot be completely purified out. This is completely normal and the purest silver you can get. That’s great as an investment vehicle but it’s too soft to be used in jewelry making.

925 Sterling Silver

Sterling Silver is 92.5% silver, and the remaining part consists of copper or other metals. This combination of silver and metal alloys is the optimum balance of precious silver and alloys to maximize hardness and the amount of silver. All of the jewelry created by Amorium is made using 925 Sterling Silver. Check out some of our sterling silver pieces here:

Coin Silver

90% silver and 10% copper. It’s called coin silver because our coins used to be made of that combination of silver and alloys. Now our coins are made of more durable and cheaper materials but the name coin silver has stuck for that composition of silver..

Silver Filled

It is not a silver alloy. It’s rather a thick coating of silver over a different type of metal. But that sounds like silver-plating... Silver filled and silver plated are similar in how they are formed but the thickness of the layer on silver plating is significantly thinner.

Silver plating

Silver plating do make silver much more affordable but the thin layers are prone to wearing down or nicking and revealing the inner metal.

625 Sterling Silver

In the US only alloys consisting of at least 90% silver can be marketed as silver. Anything below that cannot be marketed as silver. If you see something marketed as 625 “Sterling Silver” that is not silver. It’s only 62.5% silver and doesn’t have many of the visual quantities of silver. 

At Amorium we cannot legally or ethically consider “625 Sterling” as silver. All our jewelry is made with 925 Sterling Silver.

Nickel Silver

Nickel silver is not actually silver. It is metal alloy consisting primarily of copper mixed with nickel and/or zinc. It is an inexpensive base metal that is similar in appearance to sterling but contains no real silver at all. Since it is so cheap, and looks like silver it is routinely used to craft fast fashion or costume jewelry.