sterling

sterling, the standard of purity for silver. The term sterling silver denotes any silver alloy in which pure silver makes up at least 92.5 percent of the content.

One theory is that the word sterling comes from the name Easterlings—coiners from east German states brought to England during the reign of Henry II (1154–89) to improve the quality of the coinage. A more plausible derivation is from the Old English word steorling (“coin with a star”), for small stars occur on some Norman pennies.

In a monetary sense, the term sterling was formerly used to describe the standard weight or quality of English coinage. The basic monetary unit of the United Kingdom is still called the pound sterling. The pound sterling’s origins go back to Anglo-Saxon times, when a pound weight of silver was coined into 240 pennies. These pennies were made from an alloy that was 925 parts silver and 75 parts copper. This proportion remained the standard in English coinage until 1920, when the proportion of silver in the coinage was reduced to 500 parts per 1,000. Britain stopped using any silver in its coins in 1946, replacing it entirely with copper and nickel. By this time the value of silver had long ceased to have any direct link to the British currency, Britain having adopted the gold standard in 1821.