What Is 925 Silver? A Plain English Guide to Real Sterling Silver (and the Cheap "Silver" You Should Avoid)

What Does “925 Silver” Actually Mean?

“925 silver” and “sterling silver” are two names for the same thing. The 925 refers to purity. Out of every 1,000 parts of the metal, 925 are pure silver.

Pure silver on its own is too soft for everyday jewellery. It would bend and wear out of shape quickly. So jewellers mix it with a small amount of another metal, almost always copper, to make it strong enough to wear as a ring, bracelet, or pair of earrings for years, and often for generations.

That is the whole idea behind 925 silver. It is a working alloy, developed over centuries, that keeps the beauty of pure silver while making it durable enough to actually live in.

When something is genuinely 925 silver, it is solid silver all the way through. There is no coating, no plating, and nothing to wear away. You could polish a piece every week for fifty years and it would still be 925 silver at the end of it.

The Problem With Cheap “Silver” From Fast Fashion and Marketplace Sites

This is where things get murky, particularly on fast fashion sites and low cost online marketplaces, where “silver” jewellery is often sold for a couple of pounds.

It Is Often Not Silver At All

In most cases, jewellery marketed this way is what is known as silver plated, or worse, simply “silver tone.” That means it is made from a base metal, often brass, copper alloy, or a mix of cheap metals, with a microscopically thin layer of silver (or sometimes no real silver at all) coated on top.

That coating is measured in microns. It is thinner than a human hair. Normal daily wear, contact with skin, perfume, or moisture is enough to wear it through within weeks or months, exposing the dull base metal underneath.

What Independent Testing Has Found

This is not just a cosmetic issue. Consumer protection testing carried out across the EU on jewellery sold through major fast fashion and marketplace platforms has repeatedly found items containing nickel, cadmium, and lead at levels far above legal safety limits, in some cases thousands of times over the permitted amount. These are not obscure, unlicensed sellers. They are some of the biggest names in fast fashion.

Cadmium and lead are toxic with repeated exposure. Nickel is one of the most common causes of contact allergies in the world. None of this belongs against your skin, and none of it has anything to do with real silver.

How Cheap “Silver” Reacts With Your Skin

If a piece of “silver” jewellery has ever turned your finger or earlobe green, black, or left a rash, that is the base metal underneath reacting with your skin, sweat, and the air, not tarnish on real silver. Genuine 925 silver can tarnish slightly over time too, that is normal for real silver, but it wipes off easily with a soft cloth and does not cause skin reactions in the way a base metal alloy can.

Five Signs Your “Silver” Jewellery Might Not Be Silver

You do not need to be an expert to spot the warning signs. A few simple checks:

• No stamp anywhere on the piece. Genuine solid silver is almost always marked 925, .925, or “sterling” somewhere on it.
• It changes colour quickly. Real silver tarnishes gradually. Plated base metal often discolours within days or weeks.
• A fridge magnet sticks to it. Genuine silver is not magnetic. Many cheap alloys used underneath plating contain steel or iron and will attract a magnet.
• It feels unusually light, or the price feels too good to be true. Solid silver has real weight and real material cost. A “silver” ring for £2 is not solid silver.
• The colour wears through at points of contact, such as the inside of a ring or the back of an earring, revealing a different coloured metal underneath.

What Is Hallmarking, and Why Does It Matter?

In the UK, hallmarking is one of the oldest consumer protection systems in the world, dating back to 1300. Under the Hallmarking Act 1973, it is a criminal offence to describe or sell an item as silver, unless it meets the legal fineness standard and, where required, carries an official hallmark from one of the UK’s four Assay Offices, in London, Birmingham, Sheffield, or Edinburgh.

A full UK hallmark on silver typically includes:

• A sponsor’s mark, identifying the maker
• A fineness mark, the 925 stamp confirming the piece is 92.5% pure silver
• An assay office mark, a symbol showing which office independently tested and marked the piece (a leopard’s head for London, an anchor for Birmingham, a rose for Sheffield, or a castle for Edinburgh)

By law, silver jewellery weighing 7.78 grams or more must carry a full assay office hallmark before it can legally be sold as silver in the UK. This is not a maker simply stamping their own work. It is an independent third party physically testing the metal to confirm it really is what it claims to be.

That distinction matters. A maker’s mark tells you who made something. An assay office hallmark tells you it has been independently verified. Fast fashion “silver” almost never carries either.

How Kerensa Jewellery Does Things Differently

Kerensa Jewellery was built as the opposite of fast fashion. Every piece is handmade to order, using solid 925 sterling silver, with nothing plated, coated, or filled.

I trained in Hatton Garden, London’s traditional heart of fine jewellery making, and I hold Freeman status of the Goldsmiths’ Company, the historic livery company that also runs the London Assay Office. Where a piece meets the legal weight threshold, it is sent for independent assay office hallmarking, exactly as described above, so you have proof, not just a promise, of what you are wearing.

Each collection, Newlyn, Zennor, Falmouth, Cribbar, Kynance, and Pebble, is designed and made by hand in Cornwall, inspired by the coastline and history around us. Because everything is solid silver, a piece bought today can be resized, repaired, and re-polished in years to come. It is designed to be worn for decades, and to be passed on, not replaced every season.

That is the real difference between heirloom jewellery and fast fashion. Fast fashion is designed to be worn a handful of times and thrown away. Solid, hallmarked 925 silver is designed to outlive the person who bought it.

How to Look After Genuine 925 Silver

Because it is a real precious metal, looking after 925 silver is simple:

• Polish gently with a soft silver polishing cloth to remove everyday tarnish
• Store pieces somewhere dry, ideally in a soft pouch or lined box, away from direct sunlight
• Take rings and bracelets off before swimming, showering, or using household chemicals
• Avoid direct contact with perfume and hairspray, which can dull the surface over time

None of this is about fragility. It is simply how you keep solid silver looking its best, and it will still be solid silver underneath, whether you polish it or not.