The metal itself

Reading the marks: what 925 and 999 actually say

Silver is almost never sold as a mystery. The trade settled long ago on stamping the purity right into the metal, in parts per thousand, and those little numbers carry the whole story of what you are holding.

The two grades we work with

A 999 mark means fine silver: nine hundred ninety nine parts silver in a thousand, as pure as the metal is commonly worked. Fine silver is noticeably soft. It presses beautifully, takes a deep polish, and gives slightly in the hand. That softness is a feature in a piece worn against the body, and it is why our fine silver section leans toward the early months.

A 925 mark means sterling: nine hundred twenty five parts silver, the rest mostly copper. The copper is there for one reason, temper. Sterling holds a curve through months of daily handling, being set down on tile, riding in a bag. It is the same standard the flatware and jewelry trades have trusted for centuries, and in our catalog it is the grade for the long haul.

The layered sheet

Some of our domes are pressed from trilaminate sheet, marked 999 for the surface you touch. The sheet layers a fine silver face over a firmer body, so the side resting on skin is the pure grade while the piece as a whole keeps more spring than fine silver alone would give. It is a way of having the surface of one grade and the temper of another in a single dome.

What the marks do not say

A purity stamp describes composition, nothing more. It does not grade the polish, the rim work or the fit, which is where the actual labor lives, and it makes no promises about what the metal does for anyone wearing it. We put our name next to the stamp for the parts the stamp cannot cover.

One practical footnote: the darkening that silver picks up over weeks is tarnish, a surface film that shows up faster on sterling because of the copper. It wipes away with a soft jewelry cloth. A piece that tarnishes is not wearing out; it is doing what silver has always done between polishings.