Before you rush to calculate the sterling silver value of your jewelry and ornaments it’s important to realize that in many cases a finely crafted object made of sterling silver is actually worth more than the value of the pure silver it contains.

If you decide to calculate the sterling silver price of your items, just remember that you may want to get these items professionally valued before you have them melted down for the value of silver alone.

Okay, so now that’s out of the way read on about the value of sterling silver!

What Is Sterling Silver?

Many people have heard the phrase “Sterling Silver” but have no idea what it means. Usually when people refer to sterling silver they are talking about silver jewelry such as silver rings or silver necklaces. Sterling silver is actually not pure silver, it is an alloy of silver and other metals like copper.

What Is 925 Silver?

Sterling silver is also commonly called 925 silver. The reason for this is that sterling silver must have a minimum silver content of 92.5%. If the percentage of silver is any less than this then it cannot be referred to as sterling silver.

There is another type of silver called “Fine Silver” which has a higher silver content. Fine silver consists of 99.9% pure silver. However, fine silver is considered too soft for practical use in jewelry such as earrings and bracelets.

This is the reason that sterling silver contains other metals and not just silver. Adding a small percentage of other metals such as copper, germanium, zinc and platinum change the overall properties of the final alloy.

Where Does The Name “Sterling Silver” Come From?

The origin of the name “sterling” silver is unknown but the most likely source of the name “sterling” is from the old English word “steorling” which roughly translated means “like a small star”. Early Norman pennies in England had the imprint of a star on them which could explain where sterling silver got it’s name.

Many historians agree that the first sterling silver alloys actually originated in continental Europe sometime in the 12th century. It was during the reign of King Edward of England that a legal definition of sterling silver first appeared. In 1275 it was specified that 12 ounces of silver for coins should contain 11 ounces 2 1/4 pennyweights of silver and 17 3/4 pennyweights of alloy.

Why Does Cheap Silver Jewelry Tarnish?

It’s a sad fact that cheaper silver jewelry contains less silver. Silver is what’s known as an unreactive metal. This means that pure silver does not tarnish or corrode much in the same way as pure gold doesn’t. However, as you add other metals to silver the alloy becomes more reactive. So the higher the silver content the less reactive it is and therefore the less likely it will tarnish or corrode.

What Is The Price Of Sterling Silver?

To value a piece of sterling silver you really need to know two things… the weight of the item and the percentage of pure silver in that item. The minimum silver content should be 92.5% but it may be higher. Look for a mark that gives the percentage (or fineness) of the silver. If you can’t find a percentage but there is a mark on it you may want to identify that hallmark to get more information about the silver content. Alternatively if you are sure it is sterling silver then you can assume the silver content is 92.5% because this is the minimum silver content of sterling silver.

Next, weight the item but make sure you use a precision set of scales. Kitchen scales are probably not accurate enough to weigh most pieces of jewelry. Silver is priced in something called Troy ounces and not regular ounces. So you will probably have to convert regular ounces to Troy ounces. Luckily this is quite simple as there are 31.10 grams or 1.097 regular ounces in every Troy ounce. So to calculate the amount of Troy ounces just divide the number of grams or regular ounces by these numbers.

So once you have the weight of the item in Troy ounces you simply multiply this by 92.5% (or the percentage of silver if it’s higher) to give you the amount of pure silver in the item. Finally, we need the current price of silver bullion, often referred to as the “spot” price of silver. There are many websites like ours that give the spot price of silver in Troy ounces.

This amount is also known as the silver “melt value”. Click on the image to the right to see an example calculation for sterling silver jewelry weighing 92 grams (note that this is rough calculation meant to show the process on paper).

If that all seems too tricky there is a handy silver melt value calculator you can try.

It’s always important to realize that the actual value of sterling silver objects may be greater than the value of the silver they contain alone.

As I have said before, many pieces of jewelry and ornaments made of sterling silver are the result of fine workmanship and may well be worth more that just their silver content. This is especially true with older object but may be just as true of modern pieces made of sterling silver.