Sterling silver: what it is and why it replaces the pure one in jewelry

Written by Posted On Monday, 12 February 2018 10:04

The silver used in jewelry, cutlery, and accessories, although it may be surprising, is not pure silver, but the so-called sterling silver. An alloy of metals such as copper that ensures the durability and strength of the pieces.

Silver is one of the few metals known since antiquity, at least since four millennia before our era it is known that it began to separate from a lead. If the rest of the metals, with the exception of gold, were sensitive to natural agents like the fire that those primitive humans were able to apply to them causing their melting, the silver, and the golden metal remained unchanged. That, infrequent for them, was the reason why they were considered gifts of nature formed by the influence of the Sun in the case of gold, because of its yellowish color, and because of the influence of the Moon in the case of silver, given its intense whitish color.

However, despite the amazing properties that this lustrous metal possessed, silver alone was not entirely useful for most purposes in what was desired to be employed. Because the pure silver, without more, is especially malleable and ductile, with what turns out to be excessively soft and fragile. This is how the alloys arose over time, combining metals with others, as in the case of tin and copper, to create bronze, and with the greater resistance or new properties.

In the case of silver, the first alloys are thought to have been made in continental Europe, and there is evidence that, in the 12th century, in what is now northern Germany, they were used for trade. But not creating a new material as such with its own name, as in the case of bronze, but a kind of new silver, a silver "law" following norms or precepts more or less official, which adds to the base a small part of another metal, which will provide the desired consistency.

Sterling silver ring

The sterling silver ring ,sometimes also called sterling silver ring 925, sterling silver ring- is an alloy of precious metal consists of 92.5% by weight pure silver and a remaining 7.5% weight another metal, mainly copper, although germanium, zinc, and platinum are also used. This is the reason why the silver jewelry we can find in the market is so durable and also the reason why some maintenance is necessary. The properties contributed by the other metals, beyond the own hardness, can cause a gradual disappearance of the natural shine and certain oxidation, with which to give luster becomes quasi-obligatory.

Throughout history, different proportions of metals have been found, verified approximately from the England of the twelfth century, although in all likelihood they came from behind, and therefore there are different silvers of law, according to the guidelines that follow each one. However, the one that has managed to become little more than a standard has been the norm we are dealing with and that takes its name from a derivation of the old English and some small coins, minted in silver, with a small star printed on one of its faces

Outstanding high-end jewelry firms such as www.rockerring.com took the proportion as their own, helping its popularization, standardization, and practical standardization, and knowing that we are in front of a jewelry piece that follows it is as simple as looking for the signature. In the case of the sterling silver ring, the most common will be to find an inscription made by the master jeweler where you see the number 925, the letter that, a double that or the word sterling. The guarantee can be found by taking a look at the inner part of the object if it is a ring, on some inconspicuous side if it is a necklace or on the back if, for example, it is a buckle, a piece of cutlery, earrings.

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