{"id":572,"date":"2025-04-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/?p=572"},"modified":"2025-04-17T18:49:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T02:49:28","slug":"what-is-sterling-silver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/what-is-sterling-silver\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Sterling Silver?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many jewelry shoppers don’t actually know what the term “sterling silver” means. Let’s take a look at what sterling silver is and how it’s made.<\/p>\n

What Is Sterling Silver?<\/h3>\n

Gold silver, or sterling silver for short, is a term used to refer to jewelry or other items that are made of silver and plated with gold. The word “vermeil” comes from the French word and is pronounced “ver-may”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Another term is “silver-plated”(or “gold-plated silver”), which has the same meaning as “vermeil”.<\/p>\n

How Sterling Silver Is Made<\/h3>\n

Sterling silver jewelry is made by first making the base of an item out of silver and then plating it with a thin layer of gold.<\/p>\n

The method of covering the surface of a workpiece with gold is called electrolysis.<\/p>\n

Sterling silver can be made from gold of varying purity, but in the United States, there is a minimum requirement: to be considered sterling silver, a piece needs to be plated with at least 10 carats of gold (equivalent to about 42% gold content).<\/p>\n

In addition, U.S. regulations state that items cannot be sold as gold plating unless the gold plating is at least 2.5 microns (0.0025 mm) thick.<\/p>\n

In addition, if the core of the work contains a metal other than silver, the seller should disclose this.<\/p>\n

Gold Plating and Durability<\/h3>\n

The lifespan of sterling silver jewelry depends on the thickness of its gold plating. The thicker the top layer of gold of an item, the longer it will wear out.<\/p>\n

The carats of the gold layer are also related to the durability of the jewelry: the higher the carats of the plating, the softer the gold alloy and the easier it is to scratch the surface.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sterling Silver with Gold-Plated and Gold-Plated Jewelry<\/h3>\n

The main difference between sterling silver jewelry and gold-plated\/gold-filled jewelry is that the base of sterling silver jewelry is made of silver, whereas gold-plated and filled jewelry can be made from a variety of metals.<\/p>\n

As a result, sterling silver jewelry is more valuable than gold-plated or gold-plated jewelry made from cheaper base metals or alloys.<\/p>\n

Sterling silver does not necessarily have a thicker layer of gold than gold-plated items.<\/p>\n

As for gold-plated jewelry, while its gold-plated thickness may vary, it is usually thicker than gold-plated jewelry.<\/p>\n

As a result, you may find that gold-plated jewelry is superior to gold-plated jewelry from a durability standpoint.<\/p>\n

Gold Plating, Nickel Content and Allergies<\/h3>\n

In general, if you wear sterling silver jewelry, you don’t have to worry about an allergic reaction to nickel because such jewelry usually does not contain metal.<\/p>\n

However, if the base of the part does contain nickel and you are allergic, you may develop a rash when the plating wears out.<\/p>\n

Remember: if sterling silver products contain nickel, suppliers are required to disclose this in the United States, so don’t forget to check if you’re concerned about allergies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many jewelry shoppers don’t actually know what the term “sterling silver” means. Let’s take a look at what sterling silver is and how it’s made. What Is Sterling Silver? Gold silver, or sterling silver for short, is a term used to refer to jewelry or other items that are made of silver and plated with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":575,"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572\/revisions\/575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.knownjewel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}