Evaluating  jewellery every day I am often faced with deciding if a piece is silver or not and how to describe the metal the jewellery is made of on my web shop. Over the years I have come up with a few tricks to help me with this which I though I would share here with you today.

1. British Silver Hallmarks

The first thing I look for on a piece of vintage  jewellery is hallmarks. A set of silver hallmarks is a positive identification of silver and usually help me to date the piece of jewellery accurately as well. Silver hallmarks have changed many times over the years since they were first introduced and I use books of silver hallmarks to help me translate these strange  markings into a description for you.

2. Other Marks on Silver

There are lots of other marks other than British Silver Hallmarks you can find on silver. These include the .925 stamp, the words ” Sterling” or  ”Silver” or Hallmarks from other countries. European hallmarks are complicated and again have to be looked up in hallmark tables, you can really spend hours just trying to find one Continental European Hallmark.

Sometimes silver is stamped as .800. This grade of silver was not used or legal in the UK until recently but jewellery was widely made from this grade in Europe and so it suggests a European origin for the piece of jewellery. .800 silver jewellery was widely made in France, Germany, Austria as well as other countries.

As well as hallmarks you can find makers initials on silver jewellery. Often these are smaller makers but finding a well know maker or simply being able to identify the craftsman is always fun.

3. Silver testing

In the complete absence of hallmarks a piece of jewellery can be tested to determine if it is silver. Look at the piece of jewellery under 10x magnification, it is especially useful to look at joints or points which are most likely to wear easily. If there is a golden or brassy colour beneath the silver showing at points of wear then it is plated or silver toned metal.  If the piece is attracted by a magnet is is also not silver.

You can acid test for silver. This is done by making a very tiny scratch in the surface at a point where the mark will not show. A tiny spot a silver testing acid is then applied to the scratch and you observe the reaction. This observation takes skill and practice. The best way to learn is to carry out the testing on pieces you already know are silver eg hallmarked as sterling. Observe the chemical reactions you get with pieces you know and then compare the reaction you get when testing pieces of metal jewellery you know are definitely not silver. Try the reactions on pieces of jewellery stamped as silver plate or on pieces you know to be silver toned costume jewellery.

  Silver test kits are available for home use but please do be careful with them as the acid is strong and burns – take the safety instructions seriously.

4. White Metal

Have you seen pieces describes as “white metal”. This term is often used by auctioneers who have pieces of silver coloured metal which is not hallmarked. They find it easiest and safest for themselves to simply describe the piece as “white metal” rather than to risk being wrong or illegal. (see .5 on staying Legal).  Often these pieces of “white metal” are silver but you have to use your judgement during the auciton viewing process as you cant actually test them until you have them bought and taken home. Its a great way to buy a bargain if your judgement is correct.

5. Staying Legal

Silver is a metal where the use of the name has clear legal implications in the UK.  Here is a guide to those implications but please contact your local hallmarking office if in any doubt ( eg do not hold me to this its just to help you make a decision not a definitive legal guide).

- The piece has full silver hallmarks or convention hallmarks for imported pieces

- The piece is not hallmarked and has silver content of less than 7.8 grams  then if you are certain it is silver then the term can be used.

- It is a piece of silver antique jewellery which was legally silver at the time it was made and dates from before 1975. EG it weighs over 7.8 grams and is stamped as silver and is a genuine antique it could well still be legally described as silver today.

- There  are many more exceptions to the hallmarking law, these can be found on the assay offices websites.

6. Silver and White Metal Descriptions on AntiquesAvenue

When you are looking at a piece of silver of white metal jewellery on AntiquesAvenue web shop how can you be sure if it is silver or not. I is the following terms:

- Hallmarked silver or Hallmarked sterling . This will have a set of British hallmarks unless I qualify the term with eg Continental Hallmarks, or Scandinavian silver hallmarks

- Stamped as “Sterling ” or ” “sil” or “silver”  . I will only call these silver if they were made at a time when these terms were legal for silver

- stamped as .925 . I call this silver if the item is under the legal silver weight of 7.8 grams.

- All other items I will test and if my observations lead me to believe they are silver and unmarked silver items were legal at the time the piece was made I will say something like “ This item tests the same as silver”.

- Silver toned metal is a term I normally reserve for vitnage costume jewellery.

- Silver plated is definitely not silver it just has a silver layer over base metal

- Silver gilt is normally silver with a light gold toned wash over the top to give a golden appearance.

I hoe this helps when you are searching out vitnage jewllery

Happy Hunting
Anne x