Argentium silver is becoming increasingly popular among jewelry enthusiasts and it’s with good reason! With its captivating shine and lustrous glow, it is the standard for brilliant silver-white metal. But what is Argentium? Let’s take a look into how it’s created, the differences between Argentium and Sterling and the benefits of Argentium jewelers.
Creating durable and beautiful jewelry is an art and a science. The most fundamental part of that science is mixing the correct amounts of metals to create strong, yet delicate looking jewelry. To do this, each precious metal (24k gold, 99.9% fine silver or pure platinum) is mixed with different alloys to produce the best quality mixture for that precious metal’s characteristics.
99.9% fine silver is too soft for jewelry purposes. Sterling Silver is 92.5% fine silver and 7.5% Copper. Adding Copper strengthens the durability of the metal, making it better suited for jewelry. Argentium Silver is anywhere from 93.5-96% fine silver, around 1% Germanium and the remainder is made up of Copper. So, does the lower Copper content make Argentium a weaker Silver?
With the addition of Germanium, Argentium is actually stronger and more durable than Sterling Silver. But, the 1% Germanium is crucial to the ratio of alloys. Any more than that, and it is no longer a benefit because too much Germanium makes metal too brittle for jewelry. Germanium and the higher fine silver content makes Argentium the shiniest and purest white of all jewelry metals (including rhodium plated white gold and platinum). It is also highly tarnish and fire scale resistant.
If you are looking for crisp white-silver jewelry, Argentium outshines all other metals (pun intended). With its anti tarnish properties, it makes for beautiful jewelry that is very low maintenance and super durable. If you love silver jewelry and haven’t given Argentium a try, I highly recommend it! You might never go back to Sterling!