[Jewelry making - Article 00174] - Re: [Orchid] Sterling

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>       Aaaaaah Peter ! I assume you are in the USA ? Mate, here's the
>     crux of the matter - what constitutes Sterling silver is a matter
>     of legal and metallurgical definition in the great outside world 

    True enough, Al, though sometimes Seattle is accused of being it's
    own unique country... (grin).  And you're right, of course, that
    other countries might specify the copper portion of the alloy too,
    but frankly, the admitedly limited resources I've got (an old little
    book on british hallmarks), that describes the british standards,
    also mentions only the silver portion of the alloy.  This could
    easily be a limitation of the paragraph, rather than an accurate
    description of the British legal standard for Sterling.   I'd ask
    you to remember, however, that there may be a difference between the
    historical meaning of the term, which certainly does specify the
    copper content, and the legal requirement that the base metal MUST be
    copper and no other.  I'd leave that, of course, to those Orchidians
    on the european side of the atlantic, who no doubt understand their
    own laws better than I could hope to.   But I'll mention in passing
    that I do happen to know a couple manufacturers who are selling
    items marked sterling, in europe, though i don't know which countries
    specifically, where those items are cast in one or another of the
    fire scale free sterling silver casting alloys sold here.  These
    alloys substituted significant amounts of the copper for other
    metals, sometimes all of the copper is substituted.  So either these
    firms have found that these alloys are legal in some parts of europe,
    or their breaking laws (or perhaps it's legal for them to
    manufacture here and sell there, but it wouldn't be legal for someone
    to manufacture over there with such alloys...   ) 

Peter


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