How to identify sterling silver.

American sterling

American sterling is usually stamped STERLING, often with the maker's name or mark and sometimes a pattern name or number. Earlier American pieces marked COIN or PURE COIN are about 90% silver.

British hallmarks

• Lion passant (a walking lion seen from the side): sterling, assayed in England.
• Britannia figure: Britannia silver, 95.8% silver, finer than sterling.
• Town marks: a leopard's head for London, an anchor for Birmingham, a crown or rose for Sheffield, a castle for Edinburgh.
• Date letter: a letter in a shaped shield gives the year the piece was assayed.
• Since 1999: the purity is always shown as a number in a shield, such as 925 for sterling; the lion became optional.

Mexican, European, and other silver

• Mexico: 925 or STERLING with "Mexico", often with a maker's code such as TC followed by numbers.
• Continental Europe: numbers give the purity in thousandths: 800, 830, 835, or 925. German silverware (never jewelry) made from 1888 on shows its purity, 800 or higher, with a crescent moon and a crown. ("German silver" as a name means nickel silver, which has no silver in it.)
• Elsewhere: 925 is used worldwide for sterling.

Marks that mean silver plate

EP (electroplate), EPNS (electroplated nickel silver), EPC (on copper), EPBM (on Britannia metal), A1, "triple plate", "quadruple plate", "silver on copper", and "Sheffield plate" all mean a thin layer of silver over base metal. Many plated pieces carry a maker's name in a style that looks like a hallmark, so read the words, not just the shape.

What sterling is worth

Silver is trading at $50.10 per troy ounce (the Kitco bid). We pay 80% of the silver content for sterling. See sterling flatware, tea sets and hollowware, and sterling jewelry.

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