Jewelry Stamps and Their Meanings: 925, 14K, 585, GF Chart
What the stamps inside a ring or on a clasp mean: 925, 14K, 585, 750, GF, HGE, 14KP, PT950, EPNS. A lookup table, and what a stamp can't prove.
· Jewelry Identifier
The small stamp inside a ring band, on a clasp or on the back of a pendant is a claim about the metal. Most of them follow a handful of conventions, so once you know the codes you can read nearly any of them. What a stamp cannot do is prove itself: anyone with a punch can strike “14K” on brass. Read the stamp first, then decide whether the rest of the piece agrees with it.
If the stamp is too small to read by eye, photograph it. A sharp close-up of the mark alone is enough for our jewelry identifier to transcribe what is legible and say what it is consistent with. Nothing is guessed: it does not invent characters it cannot see.
Jewelry stamps lookup table
| Stamp | What it claims | Metal content |
|---|---|---|
| 925, STER, STERLING, .925 | Sterling silver | 92.5% silver |
| 800, 830, 835 | Continental silver, common on older European pieces | 80–83.5% silver |
| 900, COIN | Coin silver | 90% silver |
| 958, BRITANNIA | Britannia silver | 95.8% silver |
| 999, FINE | Fine silver | 99.9% silver |
| 9K, 375 | 9 karat gold, common in the UK | 37.5% gold |
| 10K, 417 | 10 karat gold, the US minimum to be called gold | 41.7% gold |
| 14K, 585 | 14 karat gold | 58.5% gold |
| 18K, 750 | 18 karat gold | 75% gold |
| 22K, 916 | 22 karat gold | 91.6% gold |
| 24K, 999 | Fine gold | 99.9% gold |
| K18, K14 | Karat first: the same claim, common on Japanese and Asian pieces | as 18K, 14K |
| 14KP, 10KP | Karat plumb: the alloy meets the karat exactly. Not plated | as 14K, 10K |
| GF, 1/20 12K GF | Gold-filled: a thick gold layer bonded to base metal | gold layer at least 1/20 of the weight |
| RGP, 1/40 10K RGP | Rolled gold plate: the same idea as GF, thinner layer | gold layer under 1/20 of the weight |
| GP, GE, EP | Gold plated or gold electroplated | thin surface layer only |
| HGE, HGP | Heavy gold electroplate | a thicker plate, still a surface layer |
| VERMEIL | Gold over sterling silver | silver body, gold surface |
| PT950, PLAT, 950 PT | Platinum | 95% platinum |
| PD950, PD500 | Palladium | 95% or 50% palladium |
| EPNS, NS, NICKEL SILVER | Electroplated nickel silver | no silver in the body at all |
| SS, 316L, STAINLESS | Stainless steel | steel, no precious metal |
| TI | Titanium | titanium |
| CZ | A cubic zirconia stone, not the metal | — |
Two readings trip people up more than any other. “14KP” does not mean plated. The P stands for plumb, an older US mark saying the gold content is exactly the karat stamped. And “nickel silver” or “German silver” contains no silver. It is a copper, nickel and zinc alloy named for its colour.
Gold stamps: karat or millesimal
Gold is stamped in one of two ways. The karat system counts parts of 24: 14K is 14/24 gold. The millesimal system counts parts of 1,000: 585 is 585/1000. The two are the same claim written differently, so 14K and 585 mean the same thing, as do 18K and 750 or 9K and 375.
A millesimal number usually points to Europe, where purity marks are often struck in that form, sometimes inside a shaped outline that belongs to a national assay system. A karat stamp is the common US form. Neither tells you the maker; that is a separate mark, covered in how to identify jewelry maker’s marks and hallmarks.
Silver stamps
925 is by far the most common silver stamp and means sterling. Lower numbers such as 800 or 835 are legitimate silver standards, common on continental European and older pieces, not a sign of a fake. “Coin silver” (900) is typical of 19th-century American work.
Words matter as much as numbers. “Silver plate”, “EP”, “EPNS” and “A1” all describe a thin silver layer over another metal. “Silvertone” means the colour only.
Plated and filled gold
Most confusion sits here, because the stamp on a gold-coloured piece often carries a karat number even when the piece is mostly base metal. “1/20 12K GF” reads as: a layer of 12 karat gold making up one twentieth of the piece’s weight, on a base-metal core. It is real gold, but most of the piece is not.
From the most gold to the least, the usual order is solid gold, then gold-filled (GF), rolled gold plate (RGP), heavy gold electroplate (HGE), and gold plated or electroplated (GP, GE). Wear tells you which one you have more reliably than the stamp: plating rubs through at edges and high points to show a different-coloured metal underneath.
Platinum and other metals
Platinum is stamped PT, PLAT or PT950, often with the number of parts per thousand. Palladium follows the same pattern with PD. Stainless steel and titanium carry SS, 316L or TI, and are common in modern pieces and body jewelry. None of these is a precious-metal claim in the gold or silver sense, but platinum and palladium are worth more by weight than gold at most points in time.
What a stamp can’t prove
A stamp tells you what someone claimed when they struck it. On older pieces it may have been struck honestly to a different country’s standard. On modern fakes it is struck to sell. In the United States, a quality stamp is supposed to be accompanied by the trademark of whoever stands behind it, so a lone “14K” with no maker’s mark next to it deserves a second look. It is not proof of anything, but it is a reason to check.
What settles it is a test, not a photograph: an acid or electronic test at a jeweler, an XRF reading, or a specific-gravity check. A photo can do the step before that, which is reading the stamp correctly and noticing when the piece doesn’t fit it. Signs it doesn’t fit: plating wear on a piece stamped solid, a magnet that grabs a “925” clasp, or a stamp struck crooked and shallow on an otherwise fine piece.
Where to find the stamp
On rings, look inside the band at the bottom of the shank. On necklaces and bracelets, check the clasp, the jump ring next to it, or a small tag near the clasp. On earrings, check the post, the back of the ear wire or the butterfly back (which is often stamped separately and may not match the earring). On brooches and pendants, look on the back plate, the pin hinge or the bail.
Use a 10x loupe in diffuse daylight. To photograph it, see photographing a mark: a phone in macro mode, held steady, with the light coming in at an angle so the punch throws a shadow.
Frequently asked questions
What does 925 mean on jewelry? That the piece claims to be sterling silver, 92.5% pure silver alloyed with other metals, usually copper.
What does 14K mean on a ring? That the ring claims to be 14 karat gold: 14 parts gold in 24, or 58.5%. It is the most common gold standard for rings in the US.
Is 585 the same as 14K? Yes. 585 is the millesimal way of writing 14 karat: 585 parts gold per 1,000.
Is 14KP real gold? Yes. The P means plumb, a claim that the alloy meets 14 karat exactly. It is not a plating mark.
What does GF mean on jewelry? Gold-filled: a thick layer of gold bonded to a base-metal core, usually written with the layer’s share of the weight and its karat, such as 1/20 12K GF.
Does a stamp prove my jewelry is real? No. It is a claim. A jeweler’s test settles the metal; the stamp tells you what to test for.