Coin Silver vs. Sterling: The Truth Beneath the Shine

Coin Silver vs. Sterling: The Truth Beneath the Shine

Coin silver and sterling are two different silver alloys. Coin silver runs about .900 fine — roughly ninety percent silver — and it is named for the melted American coins and Mexican pesos that Southwest silversmiths used as raw metal. Sterling is .925 fine. The two are indistinguishable to the eye, and the metal alone will not date a piece.

Strand of small round hand-formed sterling silver beads strung as a necklace
A strand of hand-formed silver beads. J. Lorenzo Hubbell's 1905 price list offered “hollow spherical beads, various sizes, per string” among goods it described as coin silver.[1] This strand is sterling. The form outlived the metal. Petite Silver Pearls Necklace, from the T.Skies gallery.

The numbers, plainly

Silver is graded by fineness — the proportion of pure silver in the alloy. The reference books our library holds put the working range like this:

  • Fine silver — .999. Effectively pure.[1] Rosnek and Stacey give pure silver as 1.000 fine, melting at 1,761°F.[2]
  • Sterling — .925, alloyed with .075 copper to make it harder.[1] Melting point 1,640°F.[2]
  • Coin silver — about .900.[1] Melting point 1,615°F.[2] Hougart's glossary defines it as silver made from melted coins, usually U.S. dollars or Mexican pesos, at a silver content of ninety percent.[6]
  • German silver, also called nickel silver — no precious metal at all. An alloy of copper, nickel and zinc that, in the Turnbaughs' words, “visually resembles sterling silver and is used in less expensive jewelry.”[1]

Two things follow from that list. The gap between coin silver and sterling is two and a half percent — a real difference to a refiner and a nearly invisible one to a buyer. And the alloy that should actually worry you is not coin silver at all. It is the one with no silver in it.

Narrow sterling silver cuff bracelet with a row of hand-struck arrow and sun symbols running the length of the band
Sterling at .925 — .925 silver with .075 copper added to make it harder.[1] This is the metal that arrived in convenient sheet and wire form from traders around 1935[1] and that a bench like ours still works today. Stamp Dancer: Attune Cuff Bracelet, from the T.Skies workshop.

Where the metal came from

Before about 1850, Navajo and Pueblo people obtained silver ornaments through trade or warfare with Spanish settlers and Mexican plateros, and some came by way of Plains people who had acquired trade silver from English, French and American sources. When Navajo, Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande pueblo smiths began working the metal themselves, they turned to coins as the ready supply.[1]

Nineteenth-century engraving of a Navajo silversmith's work area showing a stone forge, a bellows, vessels and a scatter of tongs, punches, files and hammers on the ground
The plate is captioned “Workshop of Navajo silversmith” and headed “Bureau of Ethnology — Annual Report 1881 — Pl. XVII.” Everything the coin-silver era needed is in it: the forge with its fire, the bellows, and the tongs, punches, files and hammers spread on the ground. Public domain.

A coin was not simply cut into a shape. Because of the size and thickness of the jewelry preferred before 1900, a smith had to melt down several coins, cast them into an ingot, hammer that ingot into a sheet and work the sheet into the finished piece — rather than fashioning an ornament out of a single coin, as craftsmen elsewhere in the world have done.[3]

The supply changed twice, and both changes came from outside the workshop:

  • American coins, until about 1890. The Turnbaughs record that American coins were worked into jewelry prior to 1890, after which defacing a U.S. coin was outlawed.[1] Frank and Holbrook put the restriction on using coinage this way in the same year, 1890.[3] Rosnek and Stacey add the part that matters in practice: the ban “was not enforced overnight, and the practice of using coins as buttons continued at least into the 1940s, if not later.”[2]
  • Mexican pesos, until about 1930. Traders stocked pesos for the smiths, obtained in quantity from banks in El Paso, and they remained in use until 1930 or somewhat earlier, when the Mexican government forbade their export for this purpose.[2] The Turnbaughs date the same cutoff to 1930.[1]
  • Then slugs, then sheet. Looking for a new source, traders arranged with U.S. smelters to produce a one-ounce silver slug, square in shape and of coin fineness, which smiths readily adopted.[2] Sterling ingots of slightly higher silver content replaced the coins, and around 1935 sterling in convenient sheet and wire form became increasingly available from traders.[1]

What a trader's catalog said in 1905

The Turnbaughs reproduce the catalog and price list of J. Lorenzo Hubbell, Arizona Indian trader, dated 1905 — a booklet giving descriptions and prices of coin silver jewelry not long after Navajo smiths began producing it for sale off the reservation.[1] Its description of the goods opens:

“All these productions of the Navajo silversmith are from coin silver, melted, hammered or moulded with their own primitive appliances. Some are finished with plain surface, others are elaborately engraved, stamped or embossed in designs of endless variety.”[1]

The language is the trader's and it is of its time. The fact underneath it is what interests us: in 1905 “coin silver” was not a collector's romance. It was the plain factual description of the stock, printed next to prices by the ounce.

The shine is not evidence

Somewhere between then and now, the phrase acquired a glow. Larry Frank and Millard Holbrook named it directly: “An interesting mystique has developed concerning the use of coin silver in early jewelry.” The claim attached to that mystique is that early coin silver has a distinctive beauty of shine and color, and a guaranteed age besides.[3]

Their answer is worth quoting without softening it. Any differences among United States coins, Mexican pesos, and sterling silver “are impossible to discern by visual examination.” Variations do get noticed, but they are probably caused by the texture of and wear on the silver, or by alloys added or burned off by the smith during casting. And on the question of age:[3]

“The presence of coin silver, even if established by chemical analysis, is of little value for indicating age, since U.S. coinage continued to be used by some smiths after World War II, and the fakers use it even now.”[3]

Read that twice, because it closes two doors at once. You cannot see coin silver. And even a laboratory result confirming it does not date the piece — because honest smiths kept using coins for decades after the supposed cutoff, and dishonest ones use coins on purpose.

Why the trade moved to sterling

Sterling silver cuff bracelet covered in hand-struck geometric stamped patterns arranged in a diamondback snake motif
Sterling “takes a more beautiful finish” than coin silver — the reason a trader's wife gave in 1945 for the switch.[4] Stamp Dancer: Diamondback Cuff Bracelet, hand-stamped sterling from the T.Skies workshop. A T.Skies piece, not a tradition-made one; we say which is which.

The change was not only about supply. Margery Bedinger, writing about the effect of the Arts and Crafts Board effort — the Board was created by the U.S. government[2] — quotes a trader's wife reporting improved skill in soldering and finishing along with “the substitution for coin silver of sterling, which takes a more beautiful finish.”[4] Sterling is also the harder metal, because of the copper alloyed into it.[1]

The trade's own written standard shows the transition caught mid-step. When the United Indian Traders Association approved its code for genuine hand-made Navajo and Pueblo jewelry in March 1946, the first specification set the metal floor and, in the same breath, listed the forms it could arrive in:[5]

“Silver of nine hundred fineness (coin) or better shall be used only in the following forms: squares or slugs; scrap; sheet; round, half-round, square and triangle wire.”[5]

Coin fineness was the floor, not the ceiling — sterling clears it. And the permitted forms are the whole supply story in one line: slugs, sheet and wire, with no coin in sight. By 1946 the metal was arriving from a mill, and the standard was written for the metal the smiths actually had.

What a stamp on the back can tell you

It is worth remembering what the word “hallmark” originally meant. Hougart defines it as a stamp applied to metal attesting to metal purity, used by governments and guilds, and notes that contemporary use also takes in the identity of the maker or vendor.[6] Those are two different jobs done by marks that can sit side by side on the same bracelet. A fineness stamp is a claim about the alloy. A maker's mark is a claim about a person. Neither one verifies the other, which is why reading the mark and judging the metal are separate skills.

What to look for

  • Treat “coin silver” as a composition, not a date. It describes an alloy of about .900 fineness.[1][6] It does not establish age, even under chemical analysis.[3]
  • Do not trust your eye on the alloy. Coins, pesos and sterling cannot be told apart by visual examination; what you are actually seeing is wear, surface texture and what happened during casting.[3]
  • The real substitution risk is nickel silver. Copper, nickel and zinc, no precious metal content, and it resembles sterling on sight.[1] That is the comparison worth learning, not .900 against .925.
  • A coin-silver claim on a new piece is not a claim about age. Coinage was still being worked by some smiths after the Second World War, and by fakers deliberately.[3]
  • Ask what the seller is actually asserting. “Coin silver” is a statement about metal. Age, maker and nation are separate claims and need their own evidence.

Common questions

What is coin silver?

Silver of about .900 fineness — ninety percent silver.[1] The name comes from the practice of melting coins, usually U.S. dollars or Mexican pesos, to obtain the metal.[6]

Is coin silver better than sterling?

It is not purer — sterling contains more silver, at .925 against about .900.[1] The trade's own reason for moving to sterling was finish quality: Bedinger records the substitution of sterling for coin silver as one “which takes a more beautiful finish.”[4] Coin silver's interest is historical rather than material.

Can you tell coin silver from sterling by looking at it?

No. Differences among U.S. coins, Mexican pesos and sterling are impossible to discern by visual examination, and the variations people do notice come from wear, surface texture and the casting process.[3]

Does coin silver mean my piece is old?

No. Coin silver is of little value for indicating age even when confirmed chemically, because U.S. coinage continued to be used by some smiths after World War II and is still used by forgers.[3]

Why did silversmiths stop using coins?

Supply, twice over. Defacing U.S. coins was outlawed around 1890, Mexican pesos filled the gap until their export was forbidden around 1930, and traders then arranged one-ounce coin-fineness slugs from U.S. smelters.[1][2] Sterling sheet and wire followed, widely available from traders by about 1935.[1]

A note on accuracy. We strive for accuracy, and this page is continuously updated with new information from the artists, their families, and the community. If you can correct or deepen anything here, tell us — corrections are welcomed and credited.

Sources

  1. Turnbaugh, William A. & Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest. Schiffer, Atglen PA, © 1996 and 2007. Our scan p. 90 (Glossary: coin silver, sterling silver, fine silver, German/nickel silver); our scan p. 24 (silver before 1850, the turn to coins, the 1890 and 1930 cutoffs, sterling ingots and the arrival of sheet and wire around 1935, and the reproduced 1905 J. Lorenzo Hubbell catalog and price list).
  2. Rosnek, Carl & Joseph Stacey. Skystone and Silver: The Collector's Book of Southwest Indian Jewelry (1976). Our screen-capture scan, frame 63 (fineness and melting points of pure, sterling and coin silver; the U.S. clamp-down around 1890 and its uneven enforcement; pesos from El Paso banks to 1930; the one-ounce coin-fineness slug from U.S. smelters).
  3. Frank, Larry, with the assistance of Millard J. Holbrook II. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest 1868–1930, © 1990. Printed p. 13 (our scan p. 25) — the coin-silver mystique, the impossibility of visual identification, the worthlessness of coin silver as a dating criterion, and melting several coins into an ingot before hammering to sheet.
  4. Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, © 1973. Printed p. 121 (our scan p. 143) — the Arts and Crafts Board effort and the substitution of sterling for coin silver, quoting Kirk 1945.
  5. Hougart, Bille. 100 Collectible Native American Silversmiths and Their Hallmarks. TBR International, Inc., 2020. Printed p. 137 — specification 1 of the United Indian Traders Association code of standards approved March 1946, as reprinted there from a Desert Magazine article.
  6. Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. (2022). Printed p. 444 (our scan p. 438), Glossary — coin silver, and the definition of a hallmark as a stamp attesting to metal purity.

Related Entries

← The Southwest Jewelry Guide · Stampwork · The Fred Harvey Era · Shops, Trading Posts & Guilds · The Squash Blossom Necklace · The Naja · Native American Hallmarks · The Native Silversmith Directory · Jewelry Care

Looking at silver rather than reading about it? Our hand-stamped sterling lives in the Stamp Dancer collection, and the hand-formed silver bead strands in Desert Blossom.