Precious metals testing

How we ensure your jewellery is the real deal, every time.

Here at 52 Silk Lane, you can have absolute confidence that the items you receive will be genuine precious metals. Please read about our testing procedure below.

From our first sale we have guaranteed that the jewellery we sell is always as described, real silver and real gold. 925 sterling silver should have a 92.5% pure silver content, 9ct gold should have a 37.5% pure gold content, and 18ct gold should have a 75% pure gold content. We make absolutely sure that all of our items meet their specifications. It is surprising how many incorrectly hallmarked and stamped items are being sold, mixed with lower amounts of precious metals than specified - often without the knowledge of the re-sellers.

When we initially started selling jewellery, our testing involved a drawn-out 4 part process including rare earth magnets, bleach, scratch blocks and acids. This combination of testing processes did work up to a point, but it would fail to accurately pick up mixed metals which were just short of specification, it was time consuming, and it was costly as we had to damage items of jewellery to test below the surface. Ultimately, while it told us what was real or fake, it couldn't give us any further detailed material analysis.

These days, we are fortunate enough to be able to test all of our items with highly advanced XRF technology, which gives us complete peace of mind about what our metals really are. Not only does this extremely advanced testing method give us very accurate and complete details about the composition of the metals within a few seconds, it leaves the items completely undamaged, so we no longer have to sacrifice items for testing.

We believe this sort of advanced testing is necessary in this industry, especially for companies who want to maintain a strong reputation for quality and reliability. It is surprising how many incorrectly hallmarked and stamped items are being sold, particularly as 925 silver. These are mixed with lower amounts of precious metals than specified - often without the knowledge of the re-sellers.

The metal composition of your jewellery is important, because it is very unusual to get an allergic reaction with 925 silver and 9ct + gold jewellery, and pieces made from these materials will last looking beautiful for many, many years. When the precious metal amount is lower than it should be, it is much more likely to cause allergic reactions, and discolouring of the skin and the jewellery itself, sometimes within days. Pieces mixed below specification can initially look great, and it would be impossible to tell with the naked eye, however they will unfortunately not usually last looking good for very long at all. Precious metals are precious for a reason!

We would love you to look at some of our testing pictures below, and know that you can always have full confidence in the authenticity of the pieces you buy from 52 Silk Lane.