Silver hallmarks: 925, 999 and coin silver
What sterling, fine and coin silver purities mean, why silver is priced per troy ounce, and why melt value differs from what a dealer pays.
What melt value actually measures
Melt value is the worth of the pure silver locked inside an object if it were refined down to metal, and nothing more. It ignores craftsmanship, brand, age and collectability, so an antique spoon and a plain ingot of the same weight and purity carry the same melt figure. The calculation has three inputs: how much the piece weighs, how much of that weight is silver, and what silver is trading for right now. Because the first two are fixed properties of the item, the only moving part is the spot price you enter.
Sterling, fine and coin silver
Purity is written as a fineness, the fraction of the metal that is actually silver. Sterling, stamped 925, is 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper, and it is the standard for jewelry and flatware because pure silver is too soft to hold an edge. Fine silver, stamped 999, is 99.9% pure and is used for bullion rounds and bars. US coin silver, at 0.900, is the alloy in pre-1965 dimes, quarters and half dollars. The Purity menu offers these three because they cover the vast majority of silver people actually own.
Troy ounces versus grams
Silver is quoted per troy ounce, an old apothecary unit equal to 31.1034768 grams, which is heavier than the 28.35 gram ounce used for groceries. This matters because a headline price like 25 dollars an ounce is a troy price, and treating it as a normal ounce would inflate any estimate by roughly a tenth. The per troy ounce option in the tool handles the conversion for you by dividing the ounce price by 31.1034768, then shows the resulting per-gram figure in the Price used card so you can check the math.
Why a dealer pays less than melt
Melt value is a ceiling, not an offer. A buyer has to test the metal, refine away the copper, absorb price swings between purchase and sale, and still make a margin, so payouts land below spot. How far below depends on the form: a recognized one-ounce coin or a stamped bar might fetch close to melt, while mixed scrap, hollow handles and silver plate are discounted much harder or refused. Use this calculator to set a realistic expectation before you walk into a shop, not to predict the exact check you will receive.