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SILVER
Silver the metal of the moon, known in the ancient world as
Argentum, it was considered to
be more precious than gold as it
appeared less frequently in nature.
Pure silver is too soft for most
Jewellery applications and is generally alloyed with a small amount
of copper as in sterling silver which is 925 parts silver to 75 parts copper hence the term 925 for sterling silver.
Sterling was adopted as a standard alloy in England in the 12th century
when King Henry 11 imported
refiners from a place in Germany
known as easterling. The silver
alloy they made was of a consistent quality and was used to produce currency around the year 1300 and became known as easterling
silver
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