Silver is long being used as a precious metal for making jewelry. The superb ductility and favorable malleability make it an ideal material for jewelry. The most important characteristic that makes silver so widely popular is its wide availability that makes it not as costly as gold or platinum.

However, silver has a problem. It tarnishes and decomposes, rendering it inappropriate for long term use. This problem has led silver manufactures come out with some alternatives, such as silver alloys, which, apart from retaining the original characteristics of silver is long lasting. Among these alloys sterling silver is unique.

Sterling silver contains 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper