Don't miss out on a fabulous piece of silver at one of the DC area's great antiques venues because you don't fully understand the difference between sterling, coin and other standards of fineness such as .800 or .950.
Silver by itself is too soft to create silverware, it needs to be mixed, or alloyed, with another metal. Ancient metallurgists discovered that copper, when mixed with silver, adds tensile strength and flexibility, creating an alloy that lends itself beautifully to being made into silverware. The precise proportions of this alloy are expressed in ratios totaling 1000.
Sterling
The most commonly known standard of fineness for silver is Sterling. In 1238, the silver trade came under Crown control in England and the 925 standard of fineness was established. It is comprised of 925 parts silver to 75 parts copper.
Coin silver
From colonial times until the 20th century, coin silver was the de facto standard of fineness from American silver. It is comprised of 900 parts silver to 100 parts copper. Coin silver came about because early American silversmiths melted coins to create silverware. Until 1962 many US coins contained this 90% silver to 10% copper ratio. The difference between sterling and coin is 25/1000th, a minuscule proportion.
Other standards of fineness
Different countries legally define ‘silver’ in their own way, this definition is subject to change over time.
- Japan uses the .950 standard
- France uses both .950 and .800
- Germany since 1888 uses the .800 standard
- Russia uses .875
- Scandinavian countries historically used .820 or .830, although they have now switched to .925
Even .999, so called pure silver, contains 1 part copper.
Bullion vs. silverware
Many factors, beyond simple silver content, go into determining the value of silverware. Antique and vintage silver shoppers should consider the age, condition, origin, maker, and design of a piece of silverware as outweighing the importance of the standard of fineness from which it is created.
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