Sterling Silver Jewelry: Calculate the Value by Weight

The British currency was the first to use the word Sterling but, today, sterling silver jewelry is as common as the British money. Silver in its pure form is light and malleable. Some base metals such as copper are added in the ratio of 92.5:7.5 percent with silver to make sterling silver jewelry.

It is not, however, prudent to trust anybody and take their word for it when they give you the weight of silver in sterling silver jewelry. The world is not what it used to be, after all. If you can find out the amount of silver, you can calculate the value yourself. So, how do you find out the amount of silver in an item of sterling silver jewelry?

Reputed silver jewelry makers always emboss their items with emblems or symbols on all their products. It is to be assumed that the silver content is 92.5, but it is also possible that it is higher. How to go about finding this out?

Get access to a precision scale like the one in a chemistry laboratory. While Avoirdupois ounces or grams are the norm to measure and price other materials, they fix the price of silver by something known as a Troy ounce. You will not usually find the scale calibrated to measure silver and so you might need to do a conversion. One Troy ounce is equal to 1.097 Avoirdupois ounces or 31.10 grams. Divide the weight by the appropriate measurement figure and you will have Troy ounces. To cite an example, let us say your sterling silver jewelry weighs 93.30 grams. You must divide this figure by 31.10. What do you get? 3.00, right? Well, that is the weight of silver in a Troy ounce. If you multiply this 3 by 92.5, you arrive at 2.775, which is the weight of silver in the silver jewelry.

You can calculate the value by weight by visiting one of the many websites that you can make use of. These websites have details about silver bullion. Read through them to find the price of sterling silver for the day. They have up to date information, so you do not have to worry. If you find that the price of silver in Troy ounces is $13.00 per ounce, you can multiply 2.775 by $13.00 and the answer 37.075 is the value of the sterling silver jewelry that you wanted to find the value of.