To the uneducated eye, precious metals bear a striking resemblance to one another, and so without specialized equipment it would often be rather tricky to determine what quality a particular metal is. This has potentially serious implications for the commercial sector, and so all precious metals are measured and valued using internationally recognized and accepted benchmarks so as to ensure that all relevant parties receive genuine value for money.

You would be surprised at some of the rather outlandish and fantastical theories which people attribute to the presence of 925 silver jewelry, somehow believing that the various guises in which the number 925 comes in must denote something rather sinister. Perhaps an Illumanti calling card, CIA password or occult number? Regretfully, no. 925 silver jewelry is nothing more than a statement of the purity and silver content present in the jewelry, and so if you see the number 925 on your silver jewelry you can rest easy knowing that you are purchasing jewelry which has a silver content and purity of 92 .5%.

Often people feel rather cheated at 925 silver jewelry, arguing “why isn’t my silver jewelry purer than this?” The reason has a practical basis, rather than a mercantile one. Pure silver (anything above 99.9% silver content) is exceptionally delicate and fragile, and would be wholly unusable for use as jewelry. The slightest degree of moisture, strain or pressure would be sufficient to cause severe harm to this fragile metal. In order to compensate for the inherent weakness of this metal then, silver makers add a small amount of a more durable metal (such as copper) to form an alloy, and thus strengthen the silver jewelry. Copper is the most commonly used metal to help strengthen silver jewelry, although in China, lead is more frequently used.