As far as documented human history goes, silver has been one of the most preferred metal to create jewelry because of its malleable properties. However, silver was considered highly precious in the pre-1700’s and it is not so now. Although the mining has increased manifold, the demand for sterling silver jewelry makes it a semi-precious metal.

Pure silver is very soft and is not conducive to make jewelry. Therefore, it is mixed with other metals to form an alloy so that the jewelry can stay in shape and be durable. One of such alloys is known as Sterling Silver. Sterling silver generally is an alloy of copper and pure silver where copper is 7.5% and silver is 92.5%. Copper tends to make the silver harder so that the sterling silver fashion jewelry made stays in shape and lasts longer however it has a tendency to tarnish. It may darken with sue due to its reaction with atmospheric  and other substances. This mainly happens due to oxidation of copper.

The traditional gemstone used for normal birthstone jewelry is the Imperial topaz. The imperial topaz is the topaz gemstone which is golden and has red or pink overtones on it. It is considered rare and can be quite expensive.