What Does 926 Mean On Jewelry? Learn About Both Gold & Silver!

If you have a hobby of collecting jewelry pieces, and if you know a lot about jewelry in general – then you must have also come across some markings on your jewelry items.

We see several types of markings and numbers on such accessories, but we are not sure what they mean—similar to how people are not aware of what the stamp ‘926’ means on their jewelry.

Talking about you, are you one of those? Do you also want to know – what does 926 mean on jewelry? If it’s a yes, then continue reading because the answer to the question is right below, in this article.

What Does 926 Mean On Jewelry?

Gold

Markings like ‘926’ are stamped on the jewelry pieces to talk about the purity of the metal, and for gold, karat is a unit of measurement to rate the purity. 

Talking about ‘926’ in specific – it means that 926 parts out of 1000 parts in the jewelry are equipped with pure gold, which equals 92.6% in percentage, while the rest of the 7.4% is alloys. 

Now, ‘926’ is not a standard gold term, because, when we calculate it into karat, i.e, (926/1000) * 24, it equals 22.2 karat gold, which is approximately 22 karat. 

Indeed, 22.2 karat gold is of high quality, but it is not the official term recognised internationally and is not as valuable as 24 karat pure gold.

Why Is It Not 24k?

The reason why your jewelry is 22 karat gold instead of 18 karat or 24 karat, the officially recognised terms, could be that although the manufacturer wanted to add pure gold at most, they had to involve alloy too to raise the durability mark.

24 karat gold is expensive and valuable, but it is also fragile and delicate, with a very low durability rate – adding alloys, mainly zinc, silver, and copper, can make it durable, and it won’t get damaged easily. 

Silver

If you have the stamp ‘926’ on your silver jewelry, then it indicates the purity of the silver used in the jewelry, and that the jewelry is of real and valuable silver.

Now, ‘926’ on silver jewelry is highly uncommon because although it is real silver, the standard term for sterling silver, which is pure silver, is 925 — barely away from 926. 

Still, the ‘926’ mark stands for 92.5% pure silver in your jewelry piece, while the rest of the 7.4% is alloys, usually copper, to increase the durability. 

Why ‘926’?

Honestly, 926 on silver jewelry is rare, so here are a few reasons why your jewelry could be 926 instead of 925:

• Misprint or error – There are high chances of a misprint and error, especially since the standard term 925 is just 1 behind 926.

• Used for alloy – In a few cases, the mark 926 can be talking about an alloy used in the jewelry instead of the purity of the silver.  

• Manufacturer or regional code – The number 926 could be a custom manufacturer or regional code, and not the purity rate of silver used. 

Final Words 

At the end of the day, the term ‘926’ on both gold and silver will talk about the pure gold and silver rate used in the jewelry piece, although we still recommend checking it with a professional.

That is all for this article, and we hope you have the accurate answer for your question – What does 926 mean on jewelry? 

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is 926 silver of good quality?

• Yes, the ‘926’ mark on your silver jewelry means 92.6% pure silver used in the jewelry, so it is indeed of good quality. 

2. What does 926 mean on a ring?

• The ‘926’ stamp on both gold and silver rings talks about the purity of gold and silver used in the ring, which is 92.6% pure gold and 22 karat, and 92.6% pure silver, which is very close to sterling silver.

3. What is 926 in jewelry?

• The number ‘926’ in jewelry usually refers to the purity rate of precious metals used in jewelry, which is 92.6% for both gold and silver.