Silver Jewelry

Listed on this page are antique, vintage, and contemporary silver jewelry pieces for sale including items made from sterling and coin silver.In the United States today, any piece of jewelry that is only 90 percent silver may be sold as silver. This 90% silver is also called coin silver because prior to 1964, US coins above 10 cents in value were made of 90% silver, and these coins were often melted into flatware and jewelry. Old flatware is often marked “coin,” and jewelry piece marked 900 (=900 parts per thousand). Some very old European jewelry piece may be marked "800," "830," or some other value that represents the coin silver purity in that country. If a piece is 92.5% pure, it is called sterling silver, and marked "sterling", "sterl," or "925," which was the silver purity of British coins.” Pieces made in Britain have hallmarks identifying the date and location of manufacture. Some sterling is gold plated when made, and these pieces are marked vermeil (pronounced ver-may’).

In the US, some of the most collectible types of silver jewelry include southwestern Native American Indian jewelry, especially pieces that date before 1920. Mexican silver from the silver-mining center of Taxco (typically marked T-## for the manufacturer, or simply "Taxco"), Art deco period pieces, such as those made by Otis, and silver jewelry from great American jewelry companies like Tiffany.

Often, sterling jewelry pieces have a maker mark (initials or symbol). Identifying these marks can be a challenge if it was made by a small jewelry company or a custom made piece, however, there is now a lot of information available on the internet that will help identify most marks.