The price of sterling today
Silver is $53.44 a troy ounce at the benchmark set on , which is $1.72 a gram of fine silver. Sterling is 92.5% of that, so a gram of 925 is $1.59.
A sterling ring weighing 4 grams is therefore $6.36 of metal. A heavy cuff at 60 grams is $95.36. Silver is a weight game in a way gold is not: to reach the melt value of a single gold wedding band you need a bag of sterling.
| purity | stamp | per gram | per dwt | per troy oz |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| fine silver | 999 | $1.72 | $2.67 | $53.39 |
| Britannia | 958 | $1.65 | $2.56 | $51.20 |
| sterling | 925 | $1.59 | $2.47 | $49.43 |
| coin silver | 900 | $1.55 | $2.40 | $48.10 |
| European | 800 | $1.37 | $2.14 | $42.75 |
| 40% clad | 400 | $0.69 | $1.07 | $21.38 |
What the 925 stamp means
Nine hundred and twenty five parts per thousand fine silver, with the balance almost always copper. The standard dates to medieval English coinage and is why the word sterling attached to both the metal and the currency. Fine silver at 999 is too soft to hold a shape under use, and copper at 7.5% gives sterling enough hardness to be worn and washed without deforming.
The copper is also why sterling tarnishes and fine silver barely does. The black film is silver sulphide forming on the surface in the presence of air and traces of sulphur, accelerated by the copper. It is a surface effect and takes essentially no metal with it, so tarnish costs you nothing at melt and a buyer will not deduct for it.
Other marks in the same family: 958 is Britannia, a higher standard used in British silver at various periods. 900 is coin silver, the old American standard and the fineness of pre-1965 US coinage. 800 is the common continental European standard and turns up on German and Italian flatware. Each is priced in the table above.
Weighted and hollow pieces
This is where people get the biggest shock. Candlesticks, knife handles, trophy cups and many salt and pepper sets are weighted: a thin sterling shell filled with pitch, plaster or cement to give it heft. A pair of candlesticks that weighs two kilos may hold two hundred grams of silver. Look for the word "weighted" or "reinforced" stamped alongside the sterling mark, and weigh knife blades separately since they are usually stainless steel.
Selling sterling
Refiners pay a percentage of melt on sterling just as they do on gold, but the spread is wider because the metal value per handling cost is so much lower. Expect less than the gold bands on a small lot. A local coin shop will often take sterling by weight at a fair discount and is worth a visit before anything gets posted. The silver scrap calculator prints melt value next to those bands for a lot of any weight. What buyers actually pay covers the ranges and when each buyer makes sense.
Before selling by weight, stop and look at what you have. Pattern flatware, hallmarked British silver, Georg Jensen and Native American work all sell well above melt to the right buyer. Melting is irreversible, and a refiner has no reason to tell you that the tray you handed over was worth five times its silver.
Sterling silver questions
What is 925 sterling silver worth today?
Sterling is 92.5% silver, so a gram of it is worth the silver gram price times 0.925. At the current benchmark that is the figure in the table on this page. A typical sterling ring of 4 g is worth a few dollars at melt, which surprises people who paid far more for it.
Is 925 silver real silver?
Yes. The 925 stamp is a guarantee that 925 parts in 1000 are fine silver, with the remainder usually copper for hardness. Pure silver is too soft for most objects, which is why sterling rather than fine silver is the standard for jewellery and flatware.
How much is a gram of sterling silver worth?
The silver spot price per troy ounce divided by 31.1034768, times 0.925. Silver is priced in single or double digit dollars per ounce rather than thousands, so the per gram figure is small and the value of a sterling item comes from its weight.
Will a jeweller buy 925 silver?
Many will not, because the melt value of a small item barely covers the cost of handling it. Refiners buy sterling by weight and pay a percentage of melt, and the percentage is lower than for gold because the value density is so much lower.
Is sterling silver flatware worth melting?
Check the pattern first. A complete service in a sought-after pattern sells above melt to replacement dealers. An incomplete mixed set usually does not. Weighted handles on knives and candlesticks contain pitch or plaster, so their weight is not silver.
What does 925 on a chain with no other marks mean?
It claims sterling. It is also the easiest mark in the world to counterfeit, and 925 stamps appear on plated base metal from unregulated markets. A magnet test, a weight check against the size and an acid test will settle it in a minute.
Is 925 silver worth more than the silver in it?
As jewellery, often yes, because there is a real retail market for sterling. As scrap, no. The decision comes down to whether the piece is sellable as an object: a designer or hallmarked piece is, a tangled anonymous chain is not.