SILVER

The term "sterling" goes back to the fourteenth century and England's King John, who imported Germans to refine silver to a certain standard for use as coins. The Germans came from the east and were called "sterling." As a result, the money came to be called "sterling," which was later shortened to "sterling" and finally to "sterling." In fact, in 1300, King John ordered that all silver had to be of "sterling allay," thus establishing England's sterling standard for money.

The other kind of silver you may find in jewelry is coin silver. Coin silver is 90 percent silver and 10 percent other metal. It may be marked "coin," "coin silver," or "900."

Although these standards are universal, in some countries you may also find .800 silver. This is 800 parts pure silver and 200 parts other metal, or 80 percent silver. The term "coin silver" comes from the fact that coin silver was literally the silver used for coins. After King John established the sterling standard, all silver technically had to meet the same stand-d, but if silver were popular for decorative purposes, that meant ere was less available for coins. During the Middle Ages, silver for ornamentation fell out of favor except in monasteries.

The Renaissance brought a rebirth of the love for it, starting in Italy and France - J spreading to England. The appetite was fed later on by the enormous discoveries in the New World, and the Old World could v get enough of the shining metal.

Even so, there was not enough to go around. During the seven-h-century reign of Charles II in England, for example, silver was so popular that silversmiths resorted to melting down coins to meet demand. As a result, the mint ran short of coinage despite all the :a and efforts to get silver turned in to the mint instead of to the smith. To prevent the use of coin silver, the amount of silver required for articles such as jewelry, candlesticks, silverware, and other decorative items was raised, while the amount in coins remained the same. Since all items had to be assayed for silver content -.ore being sold, cheating could be detected-and the penalties for y the lesser quality were severe.

Coin silver regained popularity during the Victorian period, especially for elaborately initialed link bracelets. In the United States, Indian jewelry made much use of coins until 1890, when laws were -ed making their use in jewelry illegal.