Genuine silver below sterling. Standard across continental Europe, and constantly mistaken for a fake 925.
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and central Europe5 checks
800 means 80 percent silver, 835 means 83.5 percent, and both are entirely legitimate silver standards used across continental Europe for well over a century. They are not failed attempts at sterling and they are not fakes — they are the local norm in German, Italian, Dutch and Scandinavian work, and a great deal of very fine silver carries them.
This page exists mainly to stop people throwing things away. An inherited German cake slice stamped 800, or a Dutch spoon stamped 833, looks wrong to anyone who has learned that silver means 925, and it is real silver worth real money.
The practical difference from sterling is small. Slightly more copper means slightly harder metal and slightly faster tarnishing, and about 12 percent less silver by weight when it comes to melt value. Everything else — the checks, the behaviour, the care — is the same as sterling.
The number is usually accompanied by a national assay or maker's mark, and identifying the country narrows the date and the maker considerably. German silver from 1888 onwards carries a crescent moon and crown alongside the fineness, which is one of the most useful marks in European silver.
Where a mark is expressed as a decimal — .800, 0.800 — it means exactly the same as the plain number.
| Mark | Silver | Where it is usual |
|---|---|---|
| 800 | 80.0% | Germany, Italy, Austria — the commonest continental standard |
| 813 / 830 | 81.3% / 83.0% | Scandinavia, particularly Denmark and Norway |
| 833 | 83.3% | The Netherlands, Portugal |
| 835 | 83.5% | Germany, the Netherlands, Poland |
| 875 | 87.5% | Russia (84 zolotnik), and some Soviet work |
| 900 | 90.0% | Coin silver — American pre-1868 and continental |
| 916 | 91.6% | Russia (88 zolotnik), some Iberian work |
| 925 | 92.5% | Sterling — Britain, America, international |
Russian silver before 1927 was marked in zolotniks rather than millesimally: 84 zolotnik is 875, 88 is 916, and 91 is 947. A 2-digit number in the 80s on Russian work is a zolotnik mark, not a fineness in the hundreds.
A stamp is a claim, not a property. These are ordered by how much each one settles about the metal underneath — and the first two need nothing but a loupe and good light.
The first thing to establish is that 800 is not a defective 925. Look for a companion mark: a crescent moon and crown for German silver after 1888, a Dutch lion or minerva head, an Italian fascist-era or post-war provincial number in a lozenge, a Scandinavian city mark and date. Those marks locate the piece and are strong evidence of genuine continental silver.
A magnet should show nothing. Wear points should not reveal brass or nickel. An ice cube should melt fast, because silver's thermal conductivity is unaffected by the alloy proportion at this level. And it should tarnish evenly to a smooth dark film rather than corroding green or patchily.
This is the one genuine trap in the area. 'German silver', 'nickel silver' and 'Alpaca' contain no silver at all — they are copper-nickel-zinc alloys named for their colour. A piece stamped 800 with a German assay mark is silver; a piece stamped or described as German silver is not. The similarity of the words is unfortunate and long-standing.
More copper means more sulphide formation, so 800 silver darkens somewhat faster than 925 and often shows heavier tarnish in recesses. That is correct behaviour for the alloy. It is not a sign of plating, which shows a colour change at wear points rather than a uniform darkening.
Continental flatware and hollowware are often heavy, and 80 percent of a heavy piece is a meaningful quantity of silver. Weight times 0.800 times spot gives the floor. Watch for weighted or filled bases on candlesticks, which are pitch or plaster and contribute nothing.
Counterfeiting 800 silver specifically is not much of a business, because the mark is less recognised than 925 and the silver content is lower — a forger stamping plated brass would stamp 925. What happens instead is misidentification in both directions.
In one direction, genuine continental silver is dismissed as fake because it does not say 925, and sold or discarded for a fraction of its worth. In the other, 'German silver' and 'nickel silver' items are bought as silver by people who reasonably assume the word means what it says.
Each of these is checked differently. The ones with their own page have enough that is specific to them to be worth reading separately.
Metal value first, because it is the floor and it is easy to calculate. Anything worth more than melt is worth it for the maker, the age or the design — never for the stamp.
| What you have | What the metal is worth | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 800 silver, 100 g | 80 g of fine silver at spot | Weight × 0.800 |
| 835 silver, 100 g | 83.5 g of fine silver | Weight × 0.835 |
| EPNS or A1 | Nothing | Plating over a silver-free base |
| 'German silver' / Alpaca | Nothing | Contains no silver |
| Signed German or Danish 800 | Well above melt | WMF, Georg Jensen, Koch & Bergfeld |
Continental silver's melt value is straightforward and often larger than expected, because the pieces are heavy. Anything by a named maker — Georg Jensen above all — is worth far more sold as silver than as scrap.
Lovenhall RingThe mark tells you what the metal claims to be. The instrument reads the setting and the stones together and gives a range to orient you — before anyone charges you for an appraisal.