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.
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.
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]
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] Jacka (1995, p. 22) also writes that, with U.S. coins declared illegal and peso exports stopped, "most of the smiths fashioned their silver ornaments from one-ounce squares of coin silver …"[8] 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 molded 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
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 not the harder metal, though; it is the softer one. Coin silver carries more copper (about 10 percent against 7.5 percent in sterling),[2] and John Adair, writing in 1944, noted that an alloy of copper “hardens the metal” while sterling “is often considered too soft to be made into jewelry.”[9]
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. Mexican silver was in use before the ban: about 1880, the Navajo smiths Matthews watched melted Mexican dollars for their work.[14] Defacing U.S. coins was outlawed around 1890, Mexican pesos stayed in use 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.
From the Library: Bedinger, Indian Silver (1973)
1973 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1973, not today.
Bedinger (1973) explains why early Navajo ornaments were often copper or brass:
“The reason for the continued use of copper and brass during this period was the scarcity of silver; when silver became plentiful, its use for adornments gradually superseded the base metals.”
— Bedinger (1973), p. 12 [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 12), the trader J. W. Bennett told Adair that he bought heavy copper wire in hundred-pound lots, which Navajo men and women bought by the length right off the spool as late as the turn of the century; as of 1973 she reported copper was still used by Navajo smiths for jewelry sold to non-Native buyers, sometimes set with petrified wood or ornamental stones. [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 16), most silver reached the Navajos as coins received in trade, at first from several countries: American dollars and other coins came from the soldiers at Fort Defiance and the new Fort Wingate, and the first Mexican money reportedly came from the White Mountain Apaches. [4]
Bedinger (1973) notes a detail that can surprise collectors:
“Articles of Navajo craftsmanship bearing old English silver hallmarks are not unknown.”
— Bedinger (1973), p. 16 [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 30), an easy way to make a button was to solder a shank onto a coin and leave the coin's markings as decoration, sometimes smoothing them off the top but leaving them underneath. [4]
Bedinger (1973, p. 31) describes the buttons on old pouch straps as simple half-cones or half-spheres made from American dimes or Mexican coins of the same size, laced on through copper loops, and reports that coin dates from the 1880s to the early 1900s are common on them. [4]
Bedinger (1973) records the colour difference collectors once used for dating:
“Articles made of U.S. money had a faint yellowish tinge compared to the bluer cast of articles made from Mexican silver.”
— Bedinger (1973), p. 46 [4]
Bedinger (1973, p. 46) cautions that colour is an unreliable dating guide: heat and solder also affect it, some Mexican money was always used and some U.S. coins were used after the crackdown, and Navajo smiths commonly melted down damaged or out-of-style pieces and reused the metal. [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 46), after Mexico forbade the export of pesos, trader John J. Kirk of Chinle asked a refinery for peso-sized coin-silver disks; it sent one-ounce squares instead, which is how silver slugs reached the reservation, and by 1932 slugs from Los Angeles refineries had almost completely replaced pesos. The slugs measured 1 1/2 inches square by 1/8 inch thick. [4]
Bedinger (1973, p. 47) reports that sheet silver of various thicknesses, about as fine as the slugs, was introduced in the late 1920s, saved the smiths much hard pounding, and gradually superseded slugs. [4] Jacka (1995, p. 30) also writes: "The smiths had been using sheet silver rather than silver slugs since the 1920s." [8]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 64), Charles Lummis, writing about what he saw in 1884, gave three silver dollars as the metal in an ordinary concha and eight to a dozen conchas to the average belt. [4]
On the weight of early conchas, Bedinger (1973) noted:
“The very early ones were also thin, but this was due to scarcity of metal. As silver became more plentiful, conchas grew heavier.”
— Bedinger (1973), p. 64 [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 93), Southwest smiths first hammered their wire out by hand; thinner wire drawn through graduated holes in an iron drawplate came in, probably, during the 1880s, and factory-made wire probably arrived in the 1920s or 1930s, after commercialization had begun. [4]
On base metals, Bedinger (1973) observed:
“Brass and copper were not cast by the Navajos, probably because the high melting points put these metals beyond their skill.”
— Bedinger (1973), p. 97 [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 67), a few old copper and brass belts survive in museums; some may be older than silver ones, but others look later, and since a belt took a great many coins, a man might settle for base metal rather than have no belt. [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 128), the Pueblos did not work silver under Spanish rule. The first metal she could document among them after the Americans arrived was brass buttons. Some buttons on Pueblo clothing in the 1850s may have been silver made by Mexican smiths, since neither the Navajo (Diné) nor the Pueblos had yet learned silverworking. [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 154), who drew on Hough, the Hopis first knew silver only as Spanish, then Mexican, then American coins. They called the coins shiba, 'little white cake.' [4]
Bedinger (1973) noted that early Hopi buttons had no shanks and were strung through two holes, and described how simply one could be made:
“Such a "button" could be formed merely by hammering a "little white cake," say a dime, over a shaped piece of wood.”
— Bedinger (1973), p. 157 [4]
Writing in 1973, Bedinger summed up the end of the slug era:
“Sheet silver, introduced in the 1920s by the federal Arts and Crafts Board, has replaced slugs completely.”
— Bedinger (1973), p. 187 [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 187), by the postwar period the sheets smiths bought were .925 fine and came in several thicknesses, including a very thin stock for bezels, and wire was commercially drawn, so hours of hand-hammering and wire-drawing were no longer part of the work. [4]
According to Bedinger (1973, p. 217), an 1880 account of Chiricahua Apache men described headbands decorated with big silver disks hammered and filed from coin, and in 1891 an army officer watched a Chiricahua Apache pound a Mexican coin between two stones and then incise the ornament with a pointed knife. [4]
From the Library: Frank, Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest (1990)
1990 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1990, not today.
According to Frank (1990, p. 26, Fig. 18), a Hopi man photographed between 1903 and 1911 wore, among other pieces, a long necklace of domed silver buttons made from coins. [3]
Frank (1990, Fig. 32, p. 39) on the first metals:
“Copper and brass bracelets are the earliest types made in the Southwest.”
— Frank (1990), p. 39 [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 41, Fig. 36), one Smithsonian button collected by Mrs. T. E. Stevenson in the early 1880s was made from a United States fifty-cent piece. [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 44, Fig. 39), a group of early buttons, most bought for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, included two made from United States coins dated 1863 and 1877. [3]
Frank (1990, Fig. 50, p. 53), on a bowguard James Mooney collected in Arizona in 1893:
“Although Navajo in character, the use of an impure silver and brass alloy was mostly employed by the Plains Indians.”
— Frank (1990), p. 53 [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 61, Fig. 61), a small bridle button collected by H. R. Voth at Oraibi (Hopi) in 1893-1899 was made out of a nickel, with slightly notched edges. [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 62, Fig. 63), iron was occasionally used for earrings by both the Navajos and the Apaches and indicates an early age; the loop earrings collected at Hopi in 1911 and 1913 were all hand forged, the wire hammered rather than drawn. [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 59, Fig. 58), brass bracelets collected in 1895 and 1901 in Navajo and Apache country looked much like the silver ones, with cold-chisel and file work, and heavy wear on both sides showed they were worn in numbers on the arm. [3]
Frank (1990, Fig. 120, p. 103) notes how scarce the base-metal versions are:
“The three stamped manta pins and the chisel stamped pair of Navajo copper earrings resemble silver earring styles but are much rarer.”
— Frank (1990), p. 103 [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 103, Fig. 120), the museum's inventory card dated the copper pair 1880-1890 and called them about the first ones made. [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 118, Fig. 140), a bracelet of the early 1900s carried triangular blue glass 'stones' in brass bezels on a brass band; he wrote that brass was used both before and alongside silver. [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 122, Fig. 146), on a brass and a copper tobacco canteen of the 1880s the tops were, typically, made from U.S. Army shell casings. [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 159, Fig. 194), one early ring was made from a silver fork or spoon and still carried the stamp "Rodgers," the name of a tableware manufacturer. [3]
Frank (1990, Fig. 244, p. 193) explained why whole coins were mounted on manta pins, which he dated circa 1920s:
“The use of silver U.S. coins was common practice as the pins themselves could always be converted into money with which to buy goods.”
— Frank (1990), p. 193 [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 181, Fig. 225), a small leather pouch of the early 1900s had as its only ornament a 1908 United States fifty-cent piece inset with a turquoise stone. [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 166, Fig. 204), a wide German silver bracelet rocker-engraved with thirteen stars, found in 1969 at Cubero near Laguna Pueblo, was most probably Plains-made and acquired by the Pueblos, circa 1870; Plains contact reached deep into Pueblo and Navajo country. [3]
According to Frank (1990, p. 205), Holbrook's Chronology of Techniques dates silver forged from cast ingots to 1868-1930 and hand-drawn and forged wire to 1868-1900, and dates machine-processed silver (sheet, wire, beaded wire) and commercial solder from 1900 onward; in the same book he notes that sterling was used after 1900 (p. 13). [3]
From the Library: Turnbaugh, Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest (2007)
2007 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2007, not today.
According to Turnbaugh (2007, p. 22, caption), jewelry incorporating coins, especially the coin necklace, was made from about 1895 to 1925, and undefaced coins came back into popular use in the 1940s-1950s and again in the 1970s. [1]
According to Turnbaugh (2007, p. 34), only a small percentage of handmade silver jewelry was actually marked "sterling," ".925" or with some other designation. A jeweler could test a piece chemically instead: a drop of nitric acid on an inconspicuous spot turns sterling silver gray, or nickel silver bluish. [1]
In their Navajo chapter, Turnbaugh (2007, p. 43) wrote that all mid-19th-century Navajo (Diné) silver was hand hammered, and that American coins, Mexican pesos or ingots were used at various periods until the 1920s, when sheet silver and wire in various thicknesses were introduced. [1]
From the Library: Wright, Hopi Silver (2003)
2003 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2003, not today.
The Indian Arts and Crafts Board's standards for its Government mark, approved March 9, 1937 and reprinted by Wright (2003), set the metal rule:
“(1) Material — Silver slugs of 1 ounce weight or other silver objects may be used, provided their fineness is at least 900; and provided further, that no silver sheet shall be used.”
— Wright (2003), p. 130 [7]
According to Wright (2003, p. 130), the same 1937 standard required the slug or other silver, unless cast, to be hand-hammered to the thickness and shape desired; only findings such as pin backs, ear screws and tie-clasp backs and chain could be of another fineness and machine-made. [7]
From the Library: Jacka, Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone (1995)
1995 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1995, not today.
Lois Essary Jacka, writing in 1995, on the earliest silver supply:
“Silver coins, acquired from soldiers at Fort Defiance and Fort Wingate, were melted down, then poured into hand-carved molds to create a particular design or a simple ingot, which was then cooled, hammered into a thin sheet of silver, and trimmed to the proper shape.”
— Jacka (1995), p. 17 [8]
From the Library: Schiffer, Indian Jewelry on the Market (1996)
1996 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1996, not today.
Describing a necklace built from pressed United States silver dollars, Schiffer (1996) warned that the coins can mislead:
“Sometimes this style of necklace was made from earlier coins to make it seem as though the necklace were older, most were made in the 1940s-50s.”
— Schiffer (1996), p. 62 [10]
From the Library: Adair, The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths (1944)
1944 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1944, not today.
Grey Moustache, a Navajo smith of the 1880s, told Adair (1944):
“In the early days we made these headstalls, and all the other silver, out of American dollars and other American coins.”
— Adair (1944), p. 8 [9]
After the government order of about 1890, he told Adair (1944), the trader supplied Mexican silver instead:
“It was softer than the American money, and easier to melt up and pound out.”
— Adair (1944), p. 8 [9]
He also recalled for Adair (1944) a use for coins in the 1880s:
“We used to make silver bells out of quarters.”
— Adair (1944), p. 7 [9]
According to Adair (1944, p. 11), the yellowish bracelets and rings Grey Moustache saw among the Utes were brass, copper and German silver, and the metal he failed to melt was most likely copper or German silver, both of which melt at a higher temperature than silver. [9]
According to Adair (1944, p. 29), when the government began enforcing the laws against defacing currency about 1890, traders imported Mexican pesos for the Navajo smiths, who preferred them because the purer silver was softer and easier to work. [9]
After noting that annealing, heat and solder change the color of silver as much as its alloy does, Adair (1944) concluded:
“Therefore, individual pieces can never be dated accurately on the basis of color.”
— Adair (1944), p. 29 [9]
As of the late 1930s, Adair (1944) reported on the silver smiths then used:
“Slugs which come from refineries in Los Angeles are used almost universally today in place of the Mexican pesos.”
— Adair (1944), p. 56 [9]
According to Adair (1944, p. 56), each slug of that era weighed an ounce and measured about an inch and a half square and an eighth of an inch thick, and the slugs Tom Burnsides used were bought at the Pine Springs trading post. [9]
In his 1940 survey of Navajo silversmithing, Adair (1944) found the slug still in use:
“Nearly all of the silver that these traders farm out to the Navajo is in slug form and is purchased either directly or indirectly (through the wholesalers in Gallup) from a refining company in Los Angeles, California.”
— Adair (1944), p. 203 [9]
According to Adair (1944, p. 205), the roller had reached the reservation only in recent years by 1940: it turned a slug into a sheet thin enough for a bezel in seven to twelve minutes, against at least forty-five by hand-hammering, but only twenty percent of the smiths he questioned used one. [9]
From the Library: Baxter, Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry (2000)
2000 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2000, not today.
Baxter (2000) warned about coin necklaces:
“The dates on these coins are not reliable indicators of when the piece was actually made.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 33 [11]
Baxter (2000) gave the alloy as:
“German silver is an alloy composed of 60 percent copper, 20 percent zinc, and 20 percent nickel.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 61 [11]
According to Baxter (2000, p. 61), Southwestern peoples prized the plain, domed German silver concha plaques they got in trade from Plains tribes, and those plaques influenced how the Navajo and Pueblo concha belt developed in the late nineteenth century. [11]
According to Baxter (2000, p. 82), the revival-style trend renewed Native smiths' interest in ingot and coin casting, with fine-art jewelers such as Phillip Loretto (Jemez) and McKee Platero (Navajo) working ingot silver, and she warned that makers of fakes and forgeries had also taken up the ingot process to produce modern pieces passable as true older jewelry. [11]
Baxter (2000) on the earliest metal:
“Early silver was created by beating the metal into thin sheets, and often by hammering coins (usually .900 fineness). Commercialized sheet silver for jewelry fabrication was available as early as the 1910s, but it became more readily available after World War II.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 160 [11]
Baxter (2000) on the sterling stamp:
“Although sterling silver does not have an official stamp to attest to its purity in the United States (unlike in Great Britain and some other European countries), since the 1970s it has been a widespread practice for native jewelers to mark the word “sterling” on the back of their pieces.”
— Baxter (2000), p. 168 [11]
According to Baxter (2000, p. 168), the mark became particularly necessary to counter "white metal," a base metal used in inexpensive imitation Indian jewelry and frequently passed off as silver. [11]
From the Library: Woodward, A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing (1946)
1946 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1946, not today.
Writing in 1938, Woodward (1946) doubted that early Navajo smiths had easy access to Mexican coin:
“hence the idea that Mexican silver was easily obtained by the Navajo for their jewelry is a bit erroneous.”
— Woodward (1946), p. 11 [12]
Woodward (1946, p. 11) added that Mexican silver dollars came in later at a lower rate of exchange, but that, like the Eastern tribes before them, the Navajo fell back on American coins for their supply. [12]
Writing in 1938, Woodward (1946) saw coins doing two jobs on Navajo clothing:
“In the Navajo country at the present time one notes many American quarters, dimes and half dollars with small copper loops soldered on one side doing double duty as buttons and the family small cash supply.”
— Woodward (1946), p. 33 [12]
Bourke wrote in April 1881, as Woodward (1946) quoted him:
“Only pure metal is employed by the Navajo; plated ware he rejects at once.”
— Woodward (1946), p. 61 [12]
Matilda Coxe Stevenson's manuscript, as Woodward (1946) quoted it:
“The Mexican dollar, owing to its purity, is employed by the silversmith in preference to the silver dollar of the United States.”
— Woodward (1946), p. 63 [12]
From the Library: June, Fred Harvey Jewelry 1900–1955 (2013)
2013 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 2013, not today.
June (2013) quoted a curio maker's own catalog wording:
“An H. H. Tammen catalog in the author's collection reveals that their Indian design jewelry was "Made in 800-fine silver with hand-hammered Indian symbols."”
— June (2013), p. 60 [13]
June (2013, p. 60) explained that 800 silver is 800 parts silver per thousand, an alloy with 20 percent other metals and the lowest silver content of any Fred Harvey-era jewelry he knew; as of 2013 he reported that nearly every Harvey bracelet offered for sale was advertised as coin silver, a claim he wrote could in many cases be contradicted. [13]
Writing in 2013, June noted the limit of the usual acid test:
“Moreover, the common test will not distinguish coin content (900) from sterling content (925).”
— June (2013), p. 60 [13]
These are one collector's identification clues for Fred Harvey-era jewelry, published in 2013; no single clue proves who made a piece.
June (2013) dated the switch away from coin silver:
“The year 1932 is a watershed in Indian silver, when the silver Indian jewelry world abandoned coin silver, supplanting it with Sterling Silver by the time of World War II.”
— June (2013), p. 129 [13]
June (2013) dated the traders' one-ounce slug earlier than our page does:
“In 1895, the United States government sought to halt the rampant, illegal melting (defacing) of its coins.”
— June (2013), p. 128 [13]
According to June (2013, p. 128), as targets of that enforcement, Southwest traders then began supplying silversmiths with a coin-silver substitute, the one-ounce silver "ingot slug," which he distinguished from the pressed "emblem slug" of the souvenir trade. [13]
On how ingot bars were poured, June (2013) wrote:
“Ingot molds were cut by chiseling into soft tufa. They were easily formed and short-lived.”
— June (2013), p. 128 [13]
June (2013, p. 128) passed on a clue from Santa Fe dealer Lane Coulter: some smiths overheated their ingot silver past the ideal molten stage, and this "boiled" silver could trap air bubbles that show on the finished surface, most often on carinated and hammered triangle bracelets and on very thick ingot shanks. [13]
June (2013, p. 144) identified an outlined arrowhead enclosing the word "COIN" and the number "900" as the mark of the Arrow Novelty Company of New York, a maker of jewelry it sold as "Indian design." [13]
According to June (2013, p. 145), the Arrow Novelty catalog stated that its coin silver jewelry was 900-fine, the same metal as American silver dollars, and made no mention of 925 sterling. [13]
Writing in 2013, June (2013) explained the "COIN SILVER" stamp on Harvey-era pieces:
“The mark was intended to create the image of a silversmith pounding out coins to make a bracelet such as this. In truth, silver plates were more often produced commercially.”
— June (2013), p. 155 [13]
June (2013) dated the first rolling mills:
“A few privileged Indian silversmiths were using hand-cranked rolling mills by the 1920s.”
— June (2013), p. 155 [13]
From the Library: Matthews, Navajo Silversmiths (1883)
1883 primary source. Anything described as current here describes 1883, not today.
Matthews weighed the silver in and out on one piece he watched, and reported in 1883:
“In one article of silver, for which, allowing for clippings saved, 836 grains were given to the smith, and the work on which I watched so closely throughout that I am certain none of the material was stolen, there was a loss of 120 grains, or over 14 per cent.”
— Matthews (1883), p. 178 [14]
Mexican silver was already the smith’s raw metal when Matthews watched in about 1880. For a powder charger, he recorded in 1883,
“they melted two Mexican dollars—one for the bowl or receptacle, and one for the handle—and poured each one into its appropriate mold.”
— Matthews (1883), p. 176 [14]
Field Notes by Mateo James
Field Notes by Mateo James: Rosnek and Stacey describe the one-ounce slug as coin fineness, and Bedinger's own account of Kirk's first order says coin silver too, yet she also quotes Neumann that the slugs were of sterling fineness. She dates sheet silver to the late 1920s, while the Turnbaughs put sheet and wire at around 1935. Both may be true at different posts and dates; I record the disagreement rather than resolve it.
Field Notes by Mateo James: Bedinger dates sheet silver to the 1920s and credits the federal Arts and Crafts Board; the Turnbaughs, cited above, place sterling sheet and wire becoming widely available from traders around 1935. The two dates sit about a decade apart. I show both as each book wrote them.
Field Notes by Mateo James: Our page cites the Turnbaughs that working U.S. coins into jewelry ended with the 1890 ban. Frank's plates show whole U.S. coins still mounted on manta pins in the 1920s, and a 1908 half dollar set with turquoise. The 1890 rule may concern melting or defacing coins, while these coins were used whole; I show both.
Field Notes by Mateo James: Holbrook's chronology starts machine-processed sheet and wire in 1900, the Turnbaughs put sheet and wire from traders around 1935, and Bedinger dates sheet silver to the 1920s. The Harvey company's thin sheet of 1899 may explain the early date, but I only note the spread here.
The Turnbaughs give two dates for the same change. Their history chapter says sheet and wire became widely available around 1935, and their Navajo chapter says sheet silver and wire were introduced in the 1920s. Both may be right if sheet first arrived in the 1920s and only became common in the mid-1930s, but the book does not say that, so I have shown both dates.
Bedinger credits the federal Arts and Crafts Board with bringing in sheet silver in the 1920s. The Board's own 1937 standards, as Wright reprints them, refused the Government stamp to any piece made from silver sheet, and by 1946 the traders' code allowed sheet. The two accounts point in different directions on the Board's role, so I show both.
Our page says sterling sheet and wire were widely available from traders by about 1935. Adair, surveying Navajo smiths for the Indian Arts and Crafts Board in 1940, found that nearly all the silver the traders farmed out was still in slug form, and that the roller used to flatten slugs into sheet was only then reaching the reservation. I show his 1940 finding beside the 1935 date.
Our page follows the account that one-ounce slugs reached the reservation when trader John J. Kirk ordered them after Mexico stopped the export of pesos. June, writing in 2013, ties the traders' one-ounce ingot slug instead to the government's 1895 push against melting coins. I note the two timelines and show both as each book printed them.
I notice the dates run earlier than the 1890 ban. Around 1880, the Navajo smiths Matthews watched melted Mexican dollars for a powder charger,[14] a decade before the Turnbaughs’ 1890 date for the ban on defacing U.S. coins.[1] Mexican silver was in the smiths’ hands before the ban as well as after it. I show both dates.
Sources
- Turnbaugh, William A. & Sarah Peabody Turnbaugh. Indian Jewelry of the American Southwest. Schiffer, Atglen PA, © 1996 and 2007. Glossary: coin silver, sterling silver, fine silver, German/nickel silver, p. 91; 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 (p. 23).
- Rosnek, Carl & Joseph Stacey. Skystone and Silver: The Collector's Book of Southwest Indian Jewelry (1976). 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.
- Frank, Larry, with the assistance of Millard J. Holbrook II. Indian Silver Jewelry of the Southwest 1868–1930, © 1990. Printed p. 13 — 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.
- Bedinger, Margery. Indian Silver: Navajo and Pueblo Jewelers. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, © 1973. Printed p. 121 — the Arts and Crafts Board effort and the substitution of sterling for coin silver, quoting Kirk 1945.
- 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.
- Hougart, Bille. Native American and Southwestern Silver Hallmarks, 5th ed. (2022). Printed p. 444, Glossary — coin silver, and the definition of a hallmark as a stamp attesting to metal purity.
- Wright, Margaret Nickelson. Hopi Silver: The History and Hallmarks of Hopi Silversmithing. Revised edition. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2003. Originally published by Northland Publishing. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2003.
- Jacka, Lois Essary. Navajo Jewelry: A Legacy of Silver and Stone. Photographs by Jerry Jacka. Flagstaff: Northland Publishing, 1995. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1995.
- Adair, John. The Navajo and Pueblo Silversmiths. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944. Printed p. 56: alloyed silver as harder and more wearing than sterling.
- Schiffer, Peter N. Indian Jewelry on the Market. Text and photography by Peter N. Schiffer. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1996. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1996.
- Baxter, Paula A., with Allison Bird-Romero. Encyclopedia of Native American Jewelry: A Guide to History, People, and Terms. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 2000. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2000.
- Woodward, Arthur. A Brief History of Navajo Silversmithing. With field notes by Richard Van Valkenburgh. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 14, 2d ed. Flagstaff: Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, December 1946 (first edition 1938). Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1946.
- June, Dennis. Fred Harvey Jewelry 1900–1955. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2013. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 2013.
- Matthews, Washington. “Navajo Silversmiths.” In Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880–81, pp. 167–178, plates XVI–XX. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883. Cited by printed page. Statements describe conditions as of 1883.
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.