Solid Silver
Like Sterling, Solid Silver contains 92.5% of pure silver and an alloy. It is illegal in the U.S. to represent any product by this name that is not Sterling Silver.

Coin Silver
This is an alloy with a Millesimal fineness of 90% or 900 purity. It gets its name from American Silversmiths active in the 18th and 19th Century. These silversmiths would melt down silver coins to create new silver ware items. It is illegal in the US to sell items with less than 90% purity as coin silver.

Continental Sterling
This means European Silver with a purity of less than 92.5% but the official hallmark and assay mark are also present to authenticate the metal. The same type of term applies to Russian, German and French Sterling but again with their official hallmarks and assay marks.

Official Silver Standards
* Silver Standards - In the U.S. the standards are pure (.9999%), sterling and coin (refer below*). In the U.K. the standards are Britannia (95.8 % purity) and sterling. Britannia was used exclusively in Britain from 1697 to 1720 and has been optional since. Other countries have their own sets of official standards. Typically, but not without exception, these are 950, 935, 925, 900, 875, 850, 835, 812, 800, 750, and 675 purities as determined by official assay. These numbers represent the decimal fraction (percentage) of silver content in the manufactured item. For example, an item marked '800' is 80% pure. 950 and 935 can be legally referred to in the U.S. as sterling, regardless of the country of origin, but the lesser standards cannot. 950 is sometimes referred to as Martelé Silver. Note: In the U.S. it is a federal crime to import, sell, label, advertise, or otherwise represent any item as "sterling" or "solid silver" which does not have a purity of 92.5% or greater (refer below*).

Loth Numbers
This was a numerical system used in Austria-Hungary and Germany-Prussia in the 18th and 19th centuries for authenticating official assays. It is based on a purity of 16/16.

15/16 is 15 Loth equalling .937 purity,
14/16 is 14 Loth equalling .875 purity,
13/16 is 13 Loth equalling .812 purity, and so on.

Austria-Hungary used this system until 1866 and Germany-Prussia until 1886.

Zolotnik Numbers
These numbers are found on Russian silver items going back several centuries. The root of this system began in the 11th century with the Russian gold trade.

The numbers are based on 96/96 being pure.
84/96 which equals 875 (87.5%) purity.
88 Zolotnik is 88/96 or 916 purity and so on.

A common problem with the 84 mark is mistaking certain types of French silver plate for Russian 84 Zolotnik. One way to tell the difference is the French silver plate mark will have either a 'Gr' or 'G' after the 84 which represents grams of silver used in the plating process. A Russian 84 Zolotnik will always be accompanied with one or more official marks and a maker's mark in Russian Cyrillic letters. If an item is claimed to be Russian and it bears on the number 84, then consider it to be fake or plate.

Silver Plate
This is a very thin layering or coating of pure silver over a base metal. The most common base metals used are copper, brass, nickel-silver, white metal, and Britannia metal.
The market for silver plated items is based on rarity, uniqueness, antique qualities, craftsmanship, and design qualities only.

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Hallmarks are the key to valuing silver and gold and if you have ever struggled to identify a hallmark – and let’s face it even experts cannot remember all of them, then you need portable expert information at your fingertips.

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How to buy Silver Candelabra.