Guides
Sterling Silver Hallmarks and Craft: How to Tell Sterling From Silver Plate
Silver hallmarks and craft: what a sterling stamp legally means, how cast pieces are finished, and how to spot plating under a decorative surface.
What to take away
- A sterling stamp is a legal claim about the alloy, not a comment on quality.
- A cast silver piece and a plated base metal piece can look identical in a photo.
- Porosity, firestain and tool marks are evidence of how an object was made.
- Abrasive polish removes silver. Tarnish is a surface layer that comes off.
What a sterling mark legally means
A stamp of 925 means the alloy is at least 92.5 percent silver by weight. The word sterling carries the same floor, and 15 U.S.C. § 294 defines what the word may describe.
Anything below that figure is plate, filled metal or a base alloy with a wash. The route from alloy to a stamped object is covered in how silver jewelry is made.
Reading a maker's mark with no assay office
Britain still sends silver to an assay office, which tests the metal and adds a date letter. The United States has no such system, so a US piece often carries only a quality mark and a name.
That name is left for the buyer to identify. Font, spacing and the shape of the punch are the evidence, and silver hallmarks sets out the international systems for comparison. For a US piece, the stamp is the whole record.
Punches wear and get recut, so two pieces from one workshop can carry slightly different stamps. A plain sans-serif stamp often points to a later date than a serif stamp cut on the same bench.
A maker's mark is not a trademark, and a retailer's stamp is not a maker's mark. Both appear on silver, and only one points to the bench. The order to follow when a punch is worn or partly struck is in how to read a US maker's mark.
How a cast silver piece reaches its finish
Casting leaves a rough object, and the mold line shows on the sprue stub. Nearly everything a buyer reads as craft happens after the metal leaves the mold.
- Cut the sprue and file the stub flush with the casting.
- Sand through two or three grits, working across the previous scratches.
- Polish with a compound matched to the metal, from cutting through to coloring.
- Stop at the first pit. Porosity that opens under polish cannot be filled invisibly.
- Inspect under magnification, then test every joint and catch.
A bench that skips an intermediate grit leaves scratches that only show under a light held at an angle. They rarely show in a shop window at all.
Sterling carries one defect of its own: firestain, a copper oxide that rises during heating. Firestain and porosity explains why those two decide whether a piece polishes to a bright finish or stays textured.
Solid, plated, or filled: telling them apart
Three constructions share a shine and little else. The mark usually says which one you have, and a scale settles the rest.
| Construction | Typical mark | What the core is |
|---|---|---|
| Sterling | 925 or Sterling | Silver throughout, 92.5 percent minimum |
| Silver plate | EPNS or Silverplate | Base metal with an electroplated layer |
| Silver filled | 1/20 Silver Filled | Base metal with a bonded silver sheet |
| Vermeil | Gold over 925 | Sterling with a heavy gold plate |
Federal trade rules give the marking requirements teeth, and 16 CFR Part 23 governs quality marks for precious metals.
A magnet proves nothing. It grips a plated steel core and falls away from a plated zinc one.
Weight is the quicker test. Plate feels light for its size and often shows the base color at high points. The checks that matter before you pay are in buying real sterling silver online.
Cleaning silver without polishing metal away
Tarnish is silver sulfide on the surface. Warm water, mild soap and a soft cloth take it off, and so does a dip that converts the sulfide back to silver.
Abrasive paste and repeated machine polishing remove metal instead. Each pass flattens engraving, rounds prongs and thins a hollow handle wall. On an old piece the dark recesses are part of the design, not dirt.
Chlorine attacks some silver alloys, toothpaste is an abrasive, and an ultrasonic tank can loosen a setting or crack a filled stone.
Store pieces apart and dry, in a pouch or a closed box with anti-tarnish paper. Humidity does more damage in a year than wear does. A silver chain stored loose with other pieces scratches every link it touches.
Before cleaning an inherited piece, record the marks and the material first, as tracing an inherited silver object sets out.
