Is My Silver Real? How to Check 925, Hallmarks and Assay Testing

The fastest check is to look for a 925 stamp somewhere on the piece — on an earring back, inside a ring band, or on a clasp. That stamp confirms the metal meets the sterling silver standard. It isn't the only check worth doing, and it isn't foolproof on its own, so here is the fuller picture.

Start with the 925 stamp

Genuine sterling silver is stamped 925, sometimes written as "SS 925" or "S925", somewhere discreet on the piece. On earrings, check the post or the back of the stud. On rings, check the inside of the band. No stamp at all is a warning sign, though a very old or handmade piece may lack one for other reasons.

What BIS hallmarking actually means

In India, the Bureau of Indian Standards runs the official hallmarking scheme for precious metals. A genuine BIS hallmark confirms the purity has been checked against a government standard, and a registered jeweller's mark ties the piece back to a specific, accountable seller — one of the more reliable checks available to a shopper, because it is independently issued, not self-declared.

What an assay office does

An assay office is an independent laboratory that tests metal purity, with no stake in whether the result favours the seller. Testing by a recognised assay office is one of the strongest proofs of purity a brand can offer, because the number comes from a third party, not the brand itself.

At-home checks — and their limits

• Magnet test: silver isn't magnetic, so a strong magnet shouldn't attract it. Useful for catching cheap steel or iron fakes, but many alloys used in fake jewellery aren't magnetic either, so this test can only fail a piece, not pass one.
• Ice test: real silver conducts heat well, so an ice cube on it should start melting noticeably faster than on other metals. It's a fun home check, not a lab result — ice size, surface and room temperature all skew it.
• Skin discolouration: some people notice a grey or black mark on skin after wearing lower-purity or heavily alloyed silver. This isn't reliable either — plenty of genuine silver reacts with skin oils and sweat, and plenty of fakes don't.

None of these home tests is conclusive alone. Used together, alongside a proper hallmark, they give a reasonably confident picture.

Purity and safety are two different questions

A hallmark tells you how much silver is in a piece. It does not tell you what the rest of the metal is, or what transfers onto your skin while you wear it. Those are separate questions, tested separately, and most silver sold anywhere is only ever tested for the first.

The strictest answer to the second question comes from UK and European rules. Nickel — the metal behind most jewellery skin reactions — is capped by release rate, not just content: no more than 0.5 micrograms per square centimetre per week for anything in prolonged contact with skin, and no more than 0.2 for posts inserted through a piercing, which is the tighter limit and the one that covers studs, hoops and nose pins. The test method seals the piece in synthetic sweat at body temperature for a week and measures what comes out of it. Cadmium must stay below 0.01% by weight, lead below 0.05%.

HighSpark silver is tested against that regime by the Sheffield Assay Office (UK), and we are a BIS-certified jeweller (registration HM/C-7590837410) — so purity is certified in India and skin-safety is certified against the stricter of the two systems. Every order also carries a certificate of authenticity. If you are comparing brands, this is a fair thing to ask any of them, and a specific one: not "is it hypoallergenic", but who tested it, and against which limit.

What HighSpark does

Every HighSpark piece is stamped 925, and we are a BIS-certified jeweller (registration HM/C-7590837410). Our silver is also independently tested by the Sheffield Assay Office (UK), one of the world's oldest metal-testing authorities, and every order arrives with a certificate of authenticity. You'll find that same 925 standard across our silver stud earrings, silver hoop earrings and silver nose pins.