One from Britain, One from Germany. Two Words About Silver You Should Know

One from Britain, One from Germany. Two Words About Silver You Should Know

• Sterling: When used with the word Silver, it means the highest quality silver you can have. In scientific terms, it means an alloy ( before you look it up, it means a mix of metals ); an alloy made of 925 parts of Silver and 75 parts of copper, hence the name 925 or 92.5 silver. It’s the highest quality because pure silver (999 parts) is too soft to be used on its own and needs to be mixed with a metal such as copper to harden it and make it possible to work with.

• German: If like many of us (especially the BMW/Audi/Mercedes fans), you think that the word German means quality, in this instance, you’ll be mistaken. German as in German Silver, is actually not silver at all. It’s an alloy, you know the word by now, of copper, nickel with zinc, lead or tin. The term German comes from the fact that it was discovered by a chemist from Germany and while it has its uses in industry, the term can be quite misleading when referring to jewelry.

So how do you know what you’re buying?

Jewelers don’t try to pass off German Silver as ‘real’ silver but some of them might just stop at answering your question of ‘Is this real silver?" with a reply that 'It's German Silver' without elaborating further. It's up to you to know or ask what this means and then decide if you like the jewelry even if it's not real silver. Just know that the German Silver does not follow silver market prices, is cheap, and that due to the presence of nickel or lead, it might not be the best gift for someone with metal allergies.

N.B. Unless otherwise stated, all jewelry at Habatiq, The Silver Collection, are sterling silver. To avoid confusion, we do not use the term ‘silver’ to refer to metal alloy jewelry. In any case, when in doubt, contact us to get more details. You now know what to do if we say it’s German……