The price that I come up with for sterling silver jewelry is generally based on three things. Time, materials and creativity. This ends up being a great price when compared to gold. Consequently, people often doubt that I am using real sterling silver. I think that this is because there are other "silver" metals that are not true Sterling silver and those metals are much cheaper.



This brings us to a brief definition guide of the types of silver available.

Sterling Silver: The word "Sterling" represents the best known and most respected quality marking in use today. This is the most common form of silver used in fine jewelry. It consists of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% pure copper. The reason for adding the 7.5% copper, is to give the silver the strength and wearing quality it should have to hold up as a piece of jewelry.

No other silver alloy has the beauty in luster and color than sterling silver. That may be why it is the most prestigious of all the silver alloys (combination of metals).

Sterling Silver stands alone in quality, prestige, intrinsic value and beauty. This may in part be the reason why sterling silver has gone unchanged in formula as long as it has.

Fine Silver: This is a very pure form of Silver (99.9% pure). Fine Silver is sometimes used in jewelry to take advantage of it's soft and malleable characteristics. The most common use is a bezel. Bezel is usually the part in jewelry that holds the stones in place. Being softer than Sterling Silver, Fine Silver Bezel can be easily shaped and burnished to conform to the shape of the stone being set.

The term Silver can have several meanings, however, In most cases it is referring to sterling silver. The reason being that the most common form of silver used in fine jewelry is sterling silver.

There is a metal alloy called "German Silver". Contrary to common belief, there is no actual silver in it. This yellowish white alloy is composed of copper (65%), Zinc (23%), and the balance is Nickel. It is most commonly used for glasses (the frame) and other decorative and costume jewelry.

Nickel Silver: The composition of this particular nickel alloy is 65% Copper, 18% Nickel, and 17% Zinc. This is a very popular nickel alloy with a pleasant silvery blue white color. It is the most popular alloy used for costume jewelry and as a base for silver plated items.

Coin Silver: As the term is used in the USA is made up of 90% Silver and 10% other metals. This was the standard for silver coins in the US but is no longer used for this purpose today. The term remains, however, and this alloy is still occasionally used in jewelry.

The old U.S. Nickel coin, by the way, was made not of pure nickel as we would think but 25% nickel and 75% copper.