“Silver” on a product page can mean two completely different things, and the difference is usually a factor of ten in price. This guide explains how to tell them apart from the listing text alone, before you spend anything.
The two things the word can mean
Sterling silver is a metal alloy: 92.5% pure silver, with the remaining 7.5% usually copper for strength. Pure silver on its own is too soft to hold a clasp or a prong setting, which is why the alloy exists. A sterling piece is silver all the way through — scratch it, and the metal underneath is the same metal.
Silver-tone (also written “silver-plated”, “silver-coloured” or “rhodium-plated”) is a base metal — brass, steel, zinc alloy — with a thin silver-coloured surface. It can look identical in a photograph. It costs a fraction as much, and the surface layer is measured in microns.
Neither one is dishonest. A silver-tone chain is a perfectly reasonable thing to buy for a piece you will wear for a season. The problem is only ever paying sterling prices for silver-tone metal, and that comes down to reading the listing.
What to look for in the listing
1. The number 925
Sterling silver is marked 925, sometimes written as “.925”, “S925” or “STER”. On a necklace the stamp usually sits on the clasp or on a small tag beside it. On a ring it sits inside the band. On earrings it is on the post or the butterfly back.
If a listing says sterling silver but shows no stamp anywhere in the photographs and does not mention one in the description, that is worth a question before you buy, not after.
2. The exact wording of the material line
These phrases mean sterling silver:
- Sterling silver / 925 sterling silver / solid 925 silver
These phrases do not:
- Silver-tone, silver-coloured, silver finish
- Silver-plated, silver overlay, silver dipped
- Alloy, base metal, fashion metal
- “Silver” used on its own with no number attached
Rhodium plating is a separate case. Rhodium is a genuinely valuable metal from the platinum family and it is often applied over sterling silver to stop it tarnishing. “Rhodium-plated sterling silver” is sterling. “Rhodium-plated brass” is not.
3. The weight
Silver is dense. An 18-inch sterling chain of any real substance weighs something in the region of 4–12 grams depending on the link. If a listing gives a weight of under 2 grams for a chain that looks chunky in the photograph, the metal is probably hollow, plated, or both. A weight in the listing is a good sign in itself — it is a number that can be checked.
Once it arrives: three checks you can do at home
- Find the stamp. A phone camera in macro mode does this better than your eyes. Look at the clasp, the inside of a band, the back of a pendant bail.
- Test the magnet. Silver is not magnetic. Neither is brass or copper, so this test cannot confirm silver — but if a fridge magnet grabs the piece firmly, there is steel or nickel in it and it is not solid sterling.
- Watch how it ages. Sterling tarnishes: it goes warm grey, then black, evenly, and polishes back to bright. Plating does not tarnish — it wears through, usually first at the edges and high points, showing a different colour underneath. Yellowish or pinkish patches after a few months of wear mean plating over brass or copper.
Tarnish is not a defect
This trips up a lot of first-time silver buyers. A sterling piece that has darkened has not failed; it has reacted with sulphur in the air, and often with the wearer’s own skin chemistry, hairspray or chlorine. It comes back with a polishing cloth in about a minute. Storing pieces in a closed bag with the air pressed out slows the process down considerably.
Plated pieces, by contrast, should not be polished aggressively at all. Rubbing hard at a plated surface removes the plating faster than anything else will.
How we describe it
Rawkology is an independent retailer. We are not a manufacturer and not an official store for any brand, so we describe what we hold in the words the manufacturer uses. Where a piece is sterling, our listing says sterling silver. Where it is silver-tone or plated, the listing says that instead — and it is priced accordingly.
Most of our catalogue carries a manufacturer barcode (a GTIN), and where it does, we publish it on the product page. That number is not decoration: you can search it and see the same product listed elsewhere, described by other sellers, before you decide to buy from us.
If a listing leaves you unsure what the metal is, write to support@rawkology.com and ask. A question before an order is much less trouble for both of us than a return afterwards — though you have 30 days from delivery for that too.
