On the lines of gold jewellery, stamping silver articles is also in practice. Of late, three types of stamps are used on silver, the top one being T100 which means 100% purity, then there is B1 which indicates 70% purity and B2 which is 50% purity. In silver , detection of purity is like gold and platinum. There is more than one method of testing the purity. One of the most popular amongst all these is called the 'Blackstone' method, it involves rubbing the piece of silver under examination on a piece of stone, the degree of colour gives a fare idea about how pure the sample is. Though it is unscientific and not very precise, it is used nevertheless.

Apart from this there are plenty of purity detection laboratories too, these labs are equipped with all modern devices and instruments, the main problem with these labs are that it is quite difficult to measure the purity of samples of jewellery with intricate craft-manship and lots of alloys. Labs are therefore a second preference in most cases. In case of any such difficulties, the acid test is supposed to be the best help, mainly because though all the other materials in an alloy will melt in acid, silver will not. Another very popular way to test the purity of silver is an analysis of the level of brownness in the acid in which silver has been dipped. Fraud, however is not detectable by this method, because obviously, this method cannot be used by customers at all times.

The main World standard of fineness for silver products is sterling, or standard silver.The term sterling owes it's origin to the British currency standard, which in turn comes from the term 'Osterling silver', as originally produced by the Osterling of Germany. Sterling silver has a specific gravity of 10.3. Sterling silver is not pure enough to take vitreous enamels well and the higher Britannia silver quality of 95.84% is often used for this. Some other countries have lower silver standards of 80% and 83%.