Silver is marked in the same way as gold, using parts per thousand. The three figures you will see most often on British silver are 925, 999 and 500, and they are worth very different amounts.
925 – sterling silver
Sterling is 92.5% silver, with the remainder usually copper. It is the standard for jewellery, cutlery and hollowware in the UK, and the great majority of scrap silver is sterling. Look for the number 925 or, on older pieces, a lion passant – a walking lion in profile – which is the traditional British sterling mark.
999 – fine silver
Fine silver is as close to pure as it is practical to make. It is soft, so it is used for bullion bars and coins rather than for anything that has to survive daily wear. If you have 999 marked items they are likely to be investment pieces or craft silver.
500 – a lower standard
Half silver at 500 parts per thousand turns up in some continental and older pieces. It contains a little over half as much silver as sterling by weight, so it is priced accordingly.
Marks that are not silver
Several common marks indicate no silver content at all, or a coating only:
- EPNS – electroplated nickel silver. A nickel alloy with a thin silver coat.
- Silver plate, A1, EP – plated, not solid.
- Nickel silver, German silver, alpaca – contain no silver whatever, despite the names.
Plated items are not usually worth processing for scrap because the recoverable metal is measured in fractions of a gram.
Tarnish does not reduce the value
Silver tarnishes because it reacts with sulphur in the air. The black layer is superficial and the silver underneath is unchanged, so there is no need to polish anything before you sell it. Heavy polishing actually removes a small amount of metal each time.
