Metals : Silver

The standard for sterling silver hasn’t changed since 1238, when Edward I decreed that sterling must consist of 92.5 percent pure silver alloyed with 7.6 percent copper. From 1300, the leopard head mark was used to prove that an item was up to standard.
The term "sterling" is said to derive from the name of the old English penny. This was formerly called an e(a)sterling after the Germans (Easterlings) who, in the early 13th Century, had been brought to England to refine silver for coins.
Silver is much more plentiful than gold. But because it tends to tarnish, it’s less popular in some forms of jewellery. Like pure gold, pure silver is too soft to use, and must be combined with other metals. And, as with gold and platinum, silver items over a certain weight must carry a hallmark.