Sterling silver, gold plated or stainless steel: what the label tells you

One of the questions in our FAQ is simply "Is it real silver?" The honest answer is that it depends on the piece, and the product page tells you, if you know which words to read. This is a guide to those words, and to how each metal wears over time.

925 sterling silver

925 means 925 parts per thousand silver, or 92.5%. The rest is other metal, and the Canadian Conservation Institute notes that tarnish on sterling contains copper sulphide as well as silver sulphide, which is the copper in the alloy showing itself. The Sterling Silver Stud Earrings are a plain example: genuine 925 sterling silver, with no plating mentioned on the page.

The word has a definition. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission's jewellery guides say "sterling" and "sterling silver" should only be used for metal that is at least 925/1,000 pure silver. We are an Australian shop and these are US guidelines, but they are a clear statement of what the word is supposed to mean.

How it ages: sterling tarnishes, and that is the metal behaving normally, not a fault. It darkens from yellow through red-brown and blue to black as a film of silver sulphide builds on it. Polishing removes the tarnish, though CCI notes that some silver comes off each time.

Gold-plated sterling silver

This is a layer of gold over a sterling silver base. The Rose Gold Cable Chain Necklace is genuine 925 sterling silver, and its page describes a rose gold plated finish, although the colour options also list 14K Gold, 18K Gold, Champagne and Rhodium without saying what each finish is. The 4mm Zirconia Tennis Bracelet has a 925 silver base with a rose gold plated finish.

Neither page gives a plating thickness, so "plated" on its own doesn't tell you how thick the layer is. The US guides show how wide the range is. An electroplated layer of gold of at least 10 carat, with a thickness equivalent to at least 0.175 microns of fine gold, can be called "gold electroplate". "Heavy gold electroplate" starts at the equivalent of 2.5 microns of fine gold. "Vermeil" can be used for sterling silver plated with gold of at least 10 carat and a thickness equivalent to at least 2.5 microns of fine gold. So gold over sterling isn't automatically vermeil, and neither listing calls itself that. One buyer review of the necklace does, but the listing gives no thickness to support it.

How it ages: plating is a thin outer layer, and it wears where a piece rubs against skin, clothes or other jewellery. Both pages name 925 silver as the base. Neither says whether there is another layer between the silver and the gold. Go easy with a silver polishing cloth on plated pieces. CCI notes those cloths are impregnated with an abrasive, and warns that on a silver-plated object any method of tarnish removal may be very damaging. It doesn't cover gold plating over silver. The care line on our product pages is to wipe with a soft dry cloth after wear.

Gold plated, base not stated

The Chunky Hoop Earrings are 14K gold plated, in 25mm or 70mm. The title and the size options name the plating. Nothing on the page names the metal under it. That tells you the colour and carat of the surface and nothing about the core.

Not knowing the base doesn't make a piece poor. It does mean the page can't tell you what the metal under the plating is. If you have sensitive ears or a known metal allergy, message us before you order.

Stainless steel

Stainless steel is iron with at least 10.5% chromium. Above that level, an invisible chromium-rich oxide film forms on the surface and protects it from corrosion. There are around a hundred grades, and a page that names one is telling you more than a page that says only "stainless".

Two rings here name the grade. The Gold Geometric Open Ring is 316L stainless steel and is labelled gold plated, with no carat given. The Marquise Zircon Signet Ring is 316L stainless steel too, and names its plating as 18K gold, so what you see on it is gold over steel. The industry guide we used gives grade 316 as 16 to 18% chromium and 10 to 14% nickel, and says the L stands for low carbon. If you have a diagnosed nickel allergy, that is a question for your dermatologist about the specific piece, not one to settle from a product page.

Other pages give no grade. The Daisy Anklet calls its metal titanium steel and describes it as allergy-friendly, without giving a grade for the steel or saying how that was checked. The page is also labelled gold plated and lists a rose gold finish, with no carat or thickness.

How it ages: steel contains no silver, so it doesn't form silver tarnish. On plated steel, the plating still wears like any other plating.

Words that describe colour, not metal

"Gold-tone", "silver-tone", "gold-colored" and plain colour names describe how a piece looks. On their own they say nothing about what it is made of. Two ways they show up on our pages:

• Colour and metal both named. The Disc Tassel Anklet has a gold-tone finish and names stainless steel as its construction. The page is also labelled gold plated, with no carat or thickness given. That is still the useful kind: you know the look and the material.
• Colour only. The Micro Pave Zircon Ring comes in rose gold, gold or silver colour options, and the page doesn't name a metal. Read those as colours, which is all they claim to be.

At a glance

Reading a page in thirty seconds

• Look for a number: 925, S925, 316L, 14K, 18K. A number is the most specific thing a page can tell you.
• If it says plated, look for what it is plated over. If the page doesn't say, you don't know.
• If it says only a colour, treat it as a colour.
• Words like hypoallergenic or allergy-friendly are the seller's description of the piece, not a test of your skin. If you react to metals, ask your dermatologist which ones to avoid, then check that against the metal the page names.

Sterling tarnishes and can be polished clean. Plated pieces wear at the surface, and then what is underneath matters. Stainless steel resists corrosion and has no silver to tarnish. Every piece in the jewellery collection says what the maker told us about its metal, and some say only a colour.