When it comes to jewelry, authenticity is important (especially if you have allergies or plan to spend a good chunk of money on a piece of jewelry). If you’re ever purchased or received a piece of jewelry with a “925 Italy” stamp on it, you may be wondering what exactly this means.
We’ll be breaking down everything you need to know about the 925 Italy stamp, including what it means in silver as well as gold jewelry. And if you’re looking for the best places to buy jewelry from, we’ve got you covered there, too, with our list of the best jewelry brands.
What is 925 Italy?
925 Italy is an engraved stamp used to show that a piece of jewelry was made in Italy using at least 92.5% pure silver.
Pure silver is very soft, which is why jewelry makers don’t use 100% pure silver. Mixing it with other metals (often copper) makes the piece of jewelry stronger and longer-lasting.
What are the other metals? The other 7.5% can be made of copper, alloy, zinc, platinum, or other common metals used in jewelry.
Is 925 Italy Jewelry Good?
Yes, the 925 Italy stamp refers to the higher-end of silver jewelry.
Jewelry crafted in Italy is often higher quality than silver jewelry made in other countries. Italy puts a great importance on the craftsmanship of their jewelry.
Because of this, you’ll notice that Italian jewelry isn’t cheap. If you’re looking at a shockingly cheap piece of silver jewelry that’s 925 Italy stamped, this could indicate a fake.
There are a few techniques that can help you determine if your jewelry is real.
One easy technique is to rub the jewelry piece using a white cloth (make sure it’s soft to avoid scratches). If the jewelry leaves black marks on the cloth, it’s made of genuine sterling silver.
Using a magnet can help you determine if your jewelry is real. If you have real silver, the magnet will have no effect. Real sterling silver also has no smell, so you can always try giving it a sniff.
And finally, you can also apply nitric acid to your jewelry, which makes fake silver products lose color. If you have real sterling silver, nothing will happen to your piece of jewelry.
Gold 925 Jewelry
When it comes to gold jewelry, the 925 Italy stamp is a bit different. This stamp isn’t very common, but jewelry connoisseurs do see it from time to time.
If gold jewelry has the 925 stamp, it actually means the piece is plated in gold with 92.5% sterling silver underneath.
This is still decent quality jewelry, but it’s definitely not 92.5% gold. If you’re looking for solid gold jewelry, you’ll want to avoid the 925 stamp and look for karats. 24k gold means the piece is 99% pure gold, 22k means it is 91.7% pure gold, 20k means it’s 83.3% pure gold, 18k means it is 75% pure gold, and so on.
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