Is there a difference between silver and sterling silver?

What is the difference between sterling silver and silver plated?

• Answer:

  A silver item is normally made of a solid alloy of silver. Pure silver is too soft for use in most items that are subject to average wear (e.g. jewelry), so it has to be combined with a small amount of a harder metal such as copper. The fraction of silver is measured by a quantity called fineness. Normally it's expressed as a 3-digit number, and may or may not have an explicit decimal point. Regardless, it represents the amount of silver as a decimal fraction. For example, "925 fine" or ".925 fine" means that 925/1000, or 92.5% of the alloy is pure silver while the remaining amount is another metal or metals. Because solid silver alloys can be very expensive, it's common to make an item such as a serving dish or silverware out of a less expensive "base" metal and then simply coat it with silver in an electrolytic bath. It still has the overall appearance of silver but because you're only paying for a coating, the item will cost less. Also if the item is subject to a lot of wear the base metal may be chosen for extra hardness; then it may be possible to have it replated if the silver coating wears off.