Sterling Silver Facts

Facts About This Beautiful Metal, Sterling Silver

What is Sterling Silver?

Sterling silver is one of the world’s most popular precious metals.  Whether used for jewelry, flatware, décor pieces, or currency, all sterling silver is an alloy, because pure silver is too soft for most purposes.  Sterling silver contains 92.5% (by mass) of silver, and 7.5% of one or more other metals.  Copper is the most common metal added to silver to create the sterling alloy.  The standard minimum millesimal (parts per thousandth) fineness of sterling silver is 925, what this means is 925 parts of every thousand is pure silver.

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