Buying silver · 22 August 2026 · 6 min read
How to Tell Real Silver From Fake: Five Checks You Can Do Yourself
A magnet, a cloth and your own nose will catch most plated and alloyed fakes before you ever reach a testing shop.
Short answer
How to Tell Real Silver From Fake: Five Checks You Can Do Yourself
To check silver yourself: look for a 925 or 999 stamp, test it with a magnet (real silver is not magnetic), rub it with a soft white cloth (real silver leaves a black mark), check it feels cold and heavy for its size, and smell it — silver is odourless, while cheap alloys smell metallic. None of these is conclusive alone; together they catch most fakes.
- Magnet
- Real silver does not stick
- Cloth rub
- Leaves a black mark
- Smell
- Odourless
- Conclusive test
- Assay at a testing shop
People bring us pieces to check every week — inherited ornaments, market finds, gifts they were unsure about. Most are real. The ones that are not are almost always plated base metal, and almost all of them would have failed one of the five checks below.
Why the home tests work
Each test exploits a physical property of silver rather than its appearance, which is the part a fake copies. Silver is non-magnetic, extremely conductive, dense, odourless, and it oxidises readily at the surface. A plated piece looks identical and behaves differently on at least one of those counts.
What none of them can tell you
The home tests separate silver from not-silver. They cannot tell 925 from 800, or either from a thickly plated piece with a silver surface. If the distinction matters — if you are buying, or valuing something for insurance — the answer is an assay, not a cleverer home test.
Bring a piece to the workshop and we will tell you what it is. If it turns out to be plated, we will say so, and we will tell you plainly whether it is worth restoring.
How to check whether silver is real at home
You will need: A soft white cloth, A strong magnet, An ice cube (optional)
1.Find the purity stamp
Look for a small 925, 999, 'STER' or 'sterling' stamp, usually on a clasp, an inner rim or the underside. A missing stamp does not prove a fake — much older and handmade Indian silver is unstamped — but a stamp reading anything else, like 'silver plated' or a number under 800, tells you immediately.
2.Test it with a magnet
Hold a strong magnet against the piece. Silver is not magnetic, so a piece that jumps to the magnet or clings to it has a ferrous core and is plated at best. A piece that does not stick has passed one test, not all of them — brass and lead are not magnetic either.
3.Rub it with a white cloth
Rub the piece firmly with a soft white cloth. Real silver oxidises against the cloth and leaves a black-grey mark. A piece that leaves nothing at all is likely plated with something that is not silver, or has a lacquered surface.
4.Judge the weight and the cold
Silver is dense and conducts heat extremely well, so a real piece feels heavier than it looks and noticeably cold to the touch. Place an ice cube on it: on real silver the cube starts melting almost immediately, far faster than on steel or brass of the same size.
5.Get it assayed if it matters
None of the home checks is conclusive. If the piece is valuable, or you are buying rather than checking something you already own, have it assayed at a testing shop — it takes minutes and costs very little. Any honest seller will expect you to.
Questions about this
Does a 925 stamp guarantee the silver is real?
- No. A stamp is a claim, not a certification, and it can be struck on anything. It is useful as a first filter and worthless as proof. Independent assay at a testing shop is the only conclusive check, which is why a seller who resists one is telling you something.
My old family silver has no stamp. Is it fake?
- Probably not. A great deal of handmade and inherited Indian silver predates routine stamping, and temple articles especially were rarely marked. Have it assayed rather than assuming either way — we do this routinely for pieces brought in for polishing or remaking.
Have a piece in mind?
Send us your idol's measurements and we'll sketch a design, share a price and handcraft it.
Start an enquiry
