Questions

Gold-plated sterling silver. The core is 925 silver, meaning 92.5% silver, which is the standard alloy and the number stamped on it, with a layer of gold bonded over the top. The material varies a little from piece to piece, so if you want the exact specification for one of them, ask us about that piece and we will tell you.

A solid sterling silver piece with real gold bonded onto the surface. It is not gold-coloured paint and it is not hollow: the silver underneath is a precious metal in its own right. What you are buying is the weight and durability of silver with the colour of gold, at a fraction of what the same piece would cost in solid gold.

It is the standard mark for sterling silver: 92.5% pure silver, the rest other metals for strength. Pure silver is too soft to hold a stone or keep its shape. If you look closely at the inside of a band you will usually find it stamped there.

Eventually, with wear. Plating is a surface layer, so it thins where a piece rubs. That is why rings and bracelets show it before earrings and pendants do, and why a piece worn every day shows it before one kept for occasions. When it does, the silver showing through is still silver, not base metal.

Gently, and more carefully than solid gold. Wipe it with a soft dry cloth after wearing. Keep it away from perfume, hairspray, lotion, chlorine and household cleaners, and take it off before swimming or showering. Do not soak it, and do not use a silver dip, a polishing cloth or anything abrasive. Those are made to remove a surface layer, which is exactly what the plating is.

The gold itself does not. The silver beneath it can darken if it is exposed, so tarnish tends to appear first at the edges and the places the plating has worn thin. Kept dry, stored away from air and wiped after wearing, a piece stays bright for a long time.

Dry, dark and separately. A pouch or a lined box rather than a bathroom shelf, and not loose in a drawer with other jewellery, because pieces scratch each other, and a scratch through plating is harder to put right than a scratch in solid metal. The box a piece arrives in is made for this.