Every week there are thousands of vintage religious medals for sale on Ebay.  How do you tell which ones are genuine silver from the ones that are only silvertone or silverplated?  Especially, when some of the dealers don't know how to tell the difference either and misadvertise them?  Medals that are genuine silver will tarnish up with what we call a patina just as much as silverplated and silvertone medals will.  So, how do you tell if they look the same?  Well, here are Kassandra's tips for recognizing which religious medals are made of a valuable material as opposed to ones that are made from a material that is less valuable or is just plain worthless.

You tell by the markings.  First, you need to understand silver standards, so you can understand what silver marks mean.  Silver by itself is generally considered too "soft" of a material to make medals out of.  So, no one makes any religious medals that are 100% silver.  The generally accepted standard for silver today in jewelry and flatware is the Sterling standard which is 92.5% real silver combined with 7.5% metal alloys that make the resulting material hard enough to use. Therefore, most religious medals made in the last 30-50 years and even earlier will be marked with the word STERLING or STER or STG or with the number 925 to denote that it conforms to the Sterling standard of 92.5% real silver.  The mark will either be on the back of the medal or on the ring attached to the bale and sometimes on the bale itself.

At other times in history, other silver standards have been used so you will also find medals from Europe or Mexico that are marked with the numbers 800 or 850 or 900 or 950, etc...  For example, if you find an 800 mark, that means the medal is made out of 80% real silver and 20% alloys.  Generally, the vintage and antique religious medals will have these other marks while new medals will be marked 925 or STERLING.  And, if it's antique or close to being antique, it might have a punch mark on its bale known as a "silver punch" to denote that it's made out of real silver.

The term VINTAGE is loosely defined as a medal or charm that is at least 20 years old, but less than 80 or 100 years.  An ANTIQUE medal is generally understood to be at least 80 years old while some people believe an item has to be at least 100 years old to be an antique (when referring to furniture for example, 50+ years is considered antique).

Before World War II and in the 1800s, the masses who wanted religious medals could not afford to pay for genuine silver medals which explains the explosion of silverplated medals from that time period of which there are hundreds on Ebay.  Silverplated medals are exactly what they sound like... a thin coating of genuine silver over another base metal.  When brand new, these medals looked exactly like the more expensive Sterling ones but were much more affordable.  However, over time and with use, the silver would wear away and reveal the base metal underneath.  Brass was a very popular base metal in the pre-WWII era for silverplated religious medals.  And, you can see the brass through the silverplate wear on many old religious medals advertised on Ebay today.  The majority of silverplated medals are unmarked. 

Many, many religious medals are marked ITALY and FRANCE with no other markings.  The pre-WWII medals are generally silverplated over brass and the post-WWII medals are generally only silvertone in color and are made out of Aluminum (very lightweight and cheap... practically worthless) or Nickle Silver.  What is Nickle Silver?  Despite the word silver being part of the name, there is no genuine silver whatsoever in Nickle Silver which is an alloy of copper and nickle and sometimes zinc that has a silvery appearance only.  Other common names for this alloy are German Silver, Paktong, New Silver and Alpacca (or Alpaca).  Don't be fooled by these names.  Remember, that none of them have any real silver whatsoever.  In fact, they contain 0% silver which is why these medals have no markings.  No silver marks usually means no real silver or its only silverplated.  And, if the medal is worn, you can usually see the copper or brass underneath.

Beware of listings that only show the front side of a medal and omit a picture of the back side, so you can't verify if there are any silver marks.  If the title says silver and the pictures don't show a silver mark and the description doesn't mention a mark, ask the Seller if it has been tested to prove it's really silver.  If the medal is not genuine Sterling silver, Ebay policy requires that it be referred to as silvertone in the Title unless you are calling it Nickle Silver or Silverplate.  Beware of the word "silvered".... It is not a genuine term for Sterling silver.  Silvered means a medal that is only "silver colored" or silvertone.  Don't be fooled by the term Oxidized Silver either.  Oxidation is a coating process used on Nickle Silver to keep it from wearing through to the base metal underneath longer than it otherwise would.  So, an item listed as Oxidized Silver contains 0% genuine silver.

The most important thing to remember if you want a genuine silver religious medal is that it must be marked or the Seller guarantees in writing in the text of their listing that it has tested positive as genuine silver in the absence of markings.