The short version: with silver, the making charge usually costs more than the metal — the reverse of gold. So comparing two pieces by weight alone tells you almost nothing. Check the stamp (925), watch the weighing, and get the making charge written separately.
If you have bought gold in Pakistan, you already know the ritual: ask the day's rate, weigh the piece, add making. Silver looks like the same transaction and behaves like a different one, because the ratio between metal and work is inverted.
Why the rate matters less than you think
Silver rate sites will tell you a per-tola figure for today. They also disagree with each other — it is entirely normal to see two Pakistani rate trackers several hundred rupees apart on the same afternoon, because they are pulling from different reference markets at different moments.
For gold that gap would matter enormously. For a finished silver piece it often does not, because the metal is the smaller half of what you are paying for. A 20-gram silver bangle contains a modest amount of metal and a large amount of somebody's afternoon.
This is the single most useful adjustment to make. Stop thinking of a silver piece as metal with a fee attached, and start thinking of it as work, in silver.
A CONSEQUENCE WORTH SAYING PLAINLY
Silver jewellery is a poor investment and an excellent object. When you sell a worked silver piece back, you are paid for metal at melt value, and the metal was never the expensive part. Buy silver because you want to wear it. If you want silver as a store of value, buy bullion, not jewellery.
Reading the stamp
Most silver jewellery sold in Pakistan is 925 — sterling, 92.5% silver, the remaining 7.5% usually copper. You may also see S925 or the word Sterling, which mean the same thing. 999 is fine silver, nearly pure and considerably softer. 800 turns up on older and imported pieces.
As with gold, the stamp is the maker's claim rather than an independent certification, and Pakistan does not enforce hallmarking across the retail trade. It is a starting point, not proof. What each home test can and cannot establish is covered in how to check whether silver is real, and the practical difference between the numbers is in 925 vs 999 silver.
The four questions
- What is the stamp on this piece? If there is none, ask why. Handmade work is sometimes unstamped for good reasons; the answer should be a reason, not a shrug.
- What does it weigh, and does that include the stones? Turquoise, lapis and coral are not silver and should not be priced as if they were.
- Is the making charge separate from the metal? On silver this is the number that actually varies.
- Is it solid silver or plated? Plating over brass is common, legitimate when disclosed, and worth a fraction of solid silver.
Handmade against machine-made
The gap in silver is wider than in gold, precisely because labour dominates the price. A machine-stamped chain and a hand-raised cuff can weigh the same and be separated by a factor of five, and both prices can be honest.
What you are paying for in handwork: drawn wire rather than bought chain, filed and soldered joins that do not show, stones set individually, and a finish applied by hand. Under a loupe, handwork has slight irregularities in its repeats. Cast reproductions are uniform in a way hand tools never are — a point that matters when buying older regional pieces, which is discussed in the field guide to Pashtun jewellery.
What to expect afterwards
Sterling silver darkens. This is not a defect, it is copper reacting with sulfur in the air, and in a humid Peshawar summer it happens faster than most people expect. It is entirely reversible and largely preventable with storage — see why silver tarnishes and how to stop it before you put a new piece in a drawer.
If the piece is set with turquoise, treat the stone as the fragile part rather than the metal. Nearly all badly damaged turquoise was damaged during cleaning, not during wear: caring for turquoise in silver settings.
WHERE WE STAND
We make and sell silver in Peshawar, so we are not a neutral party. These are the questions we would want a member of our own family to ask — including at our own counter.
Common questions
Is silver jewellery worth buying in Pakistan?
As something to wear, yes — the craft tradition here is strong and the price of handwork is far below what equivalent work costs elsewhere. As an investment, no. Making charges dominate a silver price and are not returned when you sell, so a worked piece resells at metal value only.
What does 925 mean on silver?
92.5% pure silver, with the remaining 7.5% almost always copper. It is the international standard for sterling silver, and it is what most silver jewellery sold in Pakistan is made from. The copper is what makes it hard enough to wear daily.
Why do silver rate sites disagree?
They pull from different reference markets and update at different times. For finished jewellery the discrepancy usually matters less than it would for gold, because metal is the smaller share of the price. Ask the jeweller which rate they are applying and when it was set.
Should I buy stamped or unstamped silver?
Prefer stamped, but do not treat an unstamped piece as automatically suspect — small workshops sometimes do not stamp, particularly on older or very fine work where a punch would distort the piece. Ask, and test before spending seriously.