India's first house of Argentium silver

The brand losing margin to tarnish. Already selling sterling or plated brass, and quietly absorbing the returns. Argentium removes the replating cycle and the tarnish complaint without moving the price point far. Opens with white label . private label by the second order.

The shelf between gold and mass silver. Most stores leave it empty because sterling goes grey in the case. A precious metal that holds its colour in a lit display turns that gap into a category. Buys the range . small repeat quantities.

The drawings exist. The bench does not. Send a file, a sketch or a photograph. What comes back is the piece, in Argentium 960, and it never appears in anyone else's catalogue afterwards. Custom and contract . low quantity, high specificity.

Batch two has to match batch one. Repeat runs on the same approved CAD and sample, with paperwork that clears customs without a phone call. And a story the retailers downstream can actually sell. Volume . repeat schedule.

Argentium is a modern silver alloy invented by Peter Johns at Middlesex University in London and patented in 1998. It replaces the copper used in sterling silver with germanium. Copper is the ingredient in sterling that reacts with air and sulphur and turns the surface grey. Germanium instead forms a thin, clear, self-regenerating oxide layer on the surface that resists that reaction.

The result is a precious metal that stays brighter for longer, needs no rhodium plating, is nickel-free and hypoallergenic, and is made from recycled silver. The name and the mark are owned by Argentium International Limited, and only licensed users may sell jewellery as Argentium.

On the measures a jewellery buyer cares about, yes. Argentium 960 is 96 per cent fine silver against sterling's 92.5 per cent, so it is a higher-purity precious metal. It is up to seven times more tarnish resistant, it is whiter in colour because there is no copper to warm it, it is harder after heat hardening, and it carries no plating that can wear through.

The trade-off is cost. Argentium is more expensive per gram than sterling, because the silver content is higher and the alloy is licensed. Brands that switch do so because the cost lands once at purchase rather than repeatedly in re-polishing, replating and tarnish returns.

They are grades of the same alloy family, named for their silver content. Argentium 935 is 93.5 per cent silver, just above the sterling standard. Argentium 940 is 94 per cent. Argentium 960 is 96 per cent, which exceeds the Britannia standard of 95.8 per cent.

Higher grades are whiter, purer and slightly softer before hardening. We produce in Argentium 960. It is the grade that gives a buyer the strongest claim to make at the counter, and the one the Winged Unicorn mark certifies on our pieces.

It resists tarnish, it is not immune to it. In normal wear it holds colour far longer than sterling, and when it does dull it comes back with a soft cloth rather than a polishing bath or a chemical dip.

The tarnish resistance also improves over time, because germanium continues migrating to the surface and rebuilding the protective layer. There is no plating on the piece, so nothing wears through to expose a different metal underneath.

Yes. It is nickel-free, and the absence of a copper reaction means far less of the green or black skin marking that sterling causes on some people. It is one of the most common reasons brands move a whole earring line across.

It is real silver at a higher purity than sterling. Argentium 960 is 96 per cent fine silver. It is not a plating, not a coating, not a filled or bonded metal, and not a substitute. The Winged Unicorn mark exists specifically so a customer can verify that.

Argentium jewellery is made by a small number of licensed manufacturers worldwide. Argentia is India's first house built entirely on Argentium silver, supplying brands, retailers and designers in the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States, Canada, the Gulf, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and India.

We work on wholesale, white label, private label and full custom. Send a design or a brief on WhatsApp and you get a weight, a price and a lead time back.

Yes. Argentia is an Argentium Silver Trademark Registered User, registration number AS2475, licensed by Argentium International Limited of Dunn Street, London, the company that owns the Argentium trademarks and the Winged Unicorn mark.

We buy the master alloy from them directly and we stamp the Winged Unicorn on every piece. If you want to verify the registration, quote AS2475 to Argentium International at info@argentiumsilver.com.

300 grams of finished Argentium per order. Silver is bought and made by weight, so we quote MOQ in weight rather than in units, and you can spread that 300 grams across as many designs as you like.

As a rough guide, a daily-wear pendant runs about 3 to 6 grams, a ring about 3 to 5, and a pair of earrings about 4 to 8. So a 300 gram order is roughly 50 to 90 pieces in a mixed range, and considerably more if the pieces are fine. Exact counts come back with the quote once the designs are set.

Lead times depend on the design, the stone work and the size of the run, so we quote them per order rather than publishing a number we would have to qualify. What we do commit to: the lead time is confirmed in writing when the sample is approved, before you pay for bulk, and it holds.

Send the design on WhatsApp and you get a date the same day.

Worldwide from India. Regular routes are the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States, Canada, the United Arab Emirates and the wider Gulf, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and across India. Russia is served on request.

Shipments go by insured courier with door-to-door tracking and full export documentation. Incoterms are agreed per order. Duties and import taxes are the buyer's responsibility unless we agree otherwise in writing beforehand.

Yes. We accept finished CAD, a technical sketch, a reference photograph, an existing sample, or a written brief. You get a CAD render with the metal weight and finish specification written out before any metal is cut.

Designs you commission are yours. We do not resell a private label design to another buyer and we do not add it to our own range.

The same way all precious metal is priced, in four parts. Metal: the finished weight of the piece multiplied by the Argentium rate on the day. Making: the labour in casting, filing, setting and polishing that design. Stones, where the design carries any. Finishing: hallmark, packaging and certificate.

Silver moves daily, so every quote carries a validity window rather than a fixed forever price. In India, Argentium lands at roughly 40 to 50 per cent above sterling. Both metals pay the same import duty, because India imports nearly all of its silver. The difference is the germanium, the patent licence and the fabrication, plus the fact that duty is charged on all of that rather than on silver alone. The full breakdown is here.

Send us a design and a quantity on WhatsApp and you get the four numbers back, itemised, so you can see exactly what moves if you change the specification.

Yes. Argentium is treated as high-purity silver rather than as a special case, and Argentium 960 is 96 per cent fine, which sits above the Britannia standard of 95.8 per cent. Your national Assay Office will mark it to the standard the alloy meets, so confirm the exact punch with them for your market.

Separately from any national hallmark, every Argentia piece carries the Winged Unicorn, the Argentium Guild's mark certifying the silver content. That is the mark your customer will recognise as Argentium specifically.

Claim the metal, the purity and the behaviour. You can say the piece is Argentium silver, that it is 96 per cent fine silver, that it is nickel-free, that it is made from recycled silver, and that it is highly tarnish resistant.

Avoid saying tarnish-proof or non-tarnish. The alloy resists tarnish, it does not eliminate it, and an absolute claim is the one a regulator or a returning customer will hold you to.

Repeat orders run on the same approved CAD and the same approved sample, so batch two matches batch one rather than being re-interpreted at the bench. Casting, setting, finishing and quality control all happen under one roof, on a bench that has been making silver since 1984.

Yes. Bezel, prong, claw, channel, pave, halo, cluster and repeat settings. We work with lab-grown diamonds, cubic zirconia and natural gemstones, and we will set stones you supply. The metal is the reason to work with us, and the setting work is shown further up this page.

Yes, and it is a category Argentium suits particularly well. An open back removes the structural floor of the setting, so the prongs and gallery rail carry the stone alone. Argentium is harder than sterling and can be precipitation hardened before the stone goes in, which keeps prongs from splaying under a large stone.

It also needs no plating, so the wearer's skin is in contact with silver rather than with a rhodium layer, and it forms no firescale inside a gallery that is impossible to polish. We build to the specification the wearer's astrologer has given, and we set the stone you send. We do not give astrological advice. The full guide is here.

Terms, currency and method are agreed per order and confirmed in writing on the proforma invoice before anything is cast. We invoice international buyers in their own currency where we can, so you are not carrying the exchange risk on our behalf.

Ask on WhatsApp and you get the terms for your order the same day.

Yes, made to order. Argentia is a wholesale and private label house, and we also make single pieces for retail customers to order, in the same Argentium 960, from the same bench. There is no minimum on a made to order piece, the 300 gram minimum applies to wholesale orders. Wholesale accounts are unaffected by it, and private label designs stay exclusive to the buyer who commissioned them.