The short answer.
- The 925 stamp is the right first check. It is not the last one.
- Most kids silver in India is plated, because sterling contains copper and copper goes black.
- Plating is a few microns thick, it wears, and it usually sits on a nickel underlayer.
- Nazariya, kada and anklets are worn every day from birth, which is the fastest way to wear plating through.
- For a first ear stud after karnavedha, the metal matters more than the design. Nickel sensitisation is permanent.
Every Indian family buys silver for a child. Nazariya at naamkaran, a kada for a boy, anklets for a baby girl, the first pair of studs after karnavedha. It is one of the oldest habits we have and one of the least examined.
Almost every buying guide tells you to look for the 925 stamp and stops there. That is the right first step. It is not enough, and here is why.
In this guide
The claim that cannot be true twice
Go and look at any large Indian kids silver site. You will very often find two things on the same page.
In the copy: tarnish resistant. Silver stays radiant with minimal effort, a gentle wipe keeps it looking new.
In the footer, as a service badge: free lifetime plating.
Both cannot be true of the same piece.
If the metal resisted tarnish, nobody would need to offer to re-coat it for the rest of your life. Lifetime replating is offered because the coating wears off and the customer comes back.
This is not dishonest so much as inherited. Sterling silver is 92.5 per cent silver and 7.5 per cent copper. Copper reacts with oxygen and with the sulphur compounds in air, sweat, soap and humidity. The result is the dark film we call tarnish. The trade's answer for a century has been to plate over it.
So the sentence "925 sterling silver, tarnish resistant" is usually describing the plating, not the silver.
What plating actually is
Rhodium or platinum plating is a layer applied in a chemical bath. The good sites tell you the thickness. Two microns is a figure you will see quoted, and two microns is thin: roughly one fortieth of a human hair.
Three things follow that matter for a child.
| What happens | Why it matters for kids |
|---|---|
| It wears | Faster on a child than an adult. Baths, play, constant contact, and no removing it at night |
| It wears unevenly | The piece ends up part bright, part grey, which looks worse than plain silver would have |
| Something is underneath | Plating is usually applied over a nickel underlayer, because nickel is what makes it adhere |
Worth noting that the trade already knows this. One Indian parent guide advises, correctly, to avoid plated jewellery because it wears down quickly with constant skin contact, and to make sure that an earring post and back are the same metal as the visible front, not just the part you can see.
That advice is right. It just happens to rule out most of what is on sale.
Why nazariya and kada are the hardest test
Think about how these pieces are actually worn.
A nazariya goes on a baby within days of birth and stays on. A kada goes on and is not removed. Anklets are worn continuously. These are not occasion pieces taken out for a function. They are worn through bathing, feeding, sleeping, crawling, for months and years at a stretch.
The rest is copper
thickness quoted
nickel allergy
Argentium 960
That is the single hardest thing you can ask of a plated surface, and it is the standard use case for Indian baby jewellery. A piece worn to a wedding twice a year will keep its plating for a decade. A nazariya worn every day will not.
Silver is also chosen for its antibacterial properties, which is a real part of why the tradition exists. That property belongs to the silver. A coating sits between the silver and the skin.
Karnavedha and the nickel question
This is the part of the article that matters most, and it is the part nobody writes about.
Karnavedha is traditionally performed in the eleventh month, or in an odd year such as three, five or seven. Many families now do it at around two months, to line up with the first round of vaccinations.
Whenever it happens, the same thing is true: a freshly pierced ear is an open wound, and a piece of metal sits inside it continuously for weeks while it heals.
That is exactly how nickel allergy starts.
Nickel allergy is the most common contact allergy in the world, affecting roughly 8 to 19 per cent of adults, and four to ten times more women than men. Pierced ears are the most common route to developing it, and once a person is sensitised it is lifelong. There is no cure.
Most adults who cannot wear ordinary jewellery were sensitised as children, through their first earrings.
Sterling silver itself contains no nickel. The problem is the plating. Rhodium is commonly laid over a nickel strike, and a healing piercing is warm, moist and in constant contact with the post. If that plating is thin or wears at the post, nickel is what reaches the wound.
For a first stud, the specification that removes the risk is simple: unplated, nickel free, and the post and back in the same metal as the front. Screw backs rather than push backs for younger children, because they do not come loose.
The occasions, and what suits each
| Occasion | When | Usually gifted |
|---|---|---|
| Naamkaran | 11th or 12th day after birth | Kada, anklets, small chain |
| Nazariya | From birth onward | Black bead bracelet, worn continuously |
| Annaprashan | 5 to 8 months | Silver spoon and bowl, bracelet sets |
| Mundan | 6 months to 3 years | Kada, anklets, temple offerings |
| Karnavedha | 11th month, or age 3, 5, 7 | First ear studs |
| First birthday | 12 months | Bracelet, kada, keepsake piece |
| Diwali, Rakhi, Navratri | Annual | Coins, charms, light everyday pieces |
The pattern worth noticing: almost everything on that list is either worn constantly or kept for decades. Both are conditions where plating fails and unplated silver does not.
Where Argentium fits
Argentium takes the copper out of sterling and puts germanium in. Germanium hardens the metal the same way copper does, but at the surface it forms a thin, clear, self repairing layer that keeps oxygen out. The protection is in the metal, so there is nothing to coat.
| Plated 925 | Argentium 960 | |
|---|---|---|
| Silver content | 92.5% | 96% |
| What keeps it white | The plating | The silver |
| After two years of daily wear | Plating worn at contact points | Nothing to wear through |
| Nickel | Often in the plating underlayer | None in the alloy |
| Green marks on skin | Copper in the alloy | No copper |
| Upkeep | Replating, repeatedly | A soft cloth |
It costs more per gram than sterling. On a nazariya or a pair of small studs, where the piece weighs a few grams, that difference is small in rupees. The full pricing arithmetic is here.
The checklist before you buy
- Is it 925 or better, and is it stamped? A stamp is a claim the maker has physically committed to.
- Is it plated? Ask directly. If yes, ask what the underlayer is and how thick the plating is.
- Is there a lifetime plating offer? If so, the seller expects the coating to wear off. That is useful information.
- For earrings, are the post and back the same metal as the front? This is the one most often fudged.
- Screw backs for young children. Push backs come loose.
- No loose beads, no detachable charms, no sharp edges, especially under age three.
- Sizing that is snug, not tight, and check it monthly. Children grow faster than jewellery does.
- Ask what it will look like in two years, not what it looks like in the photograph.
What we will not tell you
We do not make jewellery for infants, and no metal makes an infant piece safe. The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend that infants wear jewellery of any kind, and the FDA has warned against teething necklaces and bracelets following reports of choking and a strangulation death. Choking and strangulation are risks of the object, not of the alloy. If you are buying for a baby, the fit, the construction and the supervision matter far more than the metal.
Argentium is not tarnish proof. It is highly tarnish resistant, up to seven times more than sterling, and it improves with age. It is silver, and silver eventually shows something.
Gold does not tarnish at all. If tarnish is your only concern and budget is not, gold is the simpler answer. Silver is chosen because it is affordable enough to wear every day, and that is exactly why the plating question matters.
The short version
Check the 925 stamp, then ask the question nobody asks: is it plated, and what is underneath. On jewellery a child wears every single day from birth, a coating a fortieth the thickness of a hair is doing more work than it can hold.
For a first ear stud especially, the metal is not a detail. Nickel sensitisation through a healing piercing is permanent, and it is why so many adults cannot wear jewellery today.
We make in Argentium 960 only, unplated and nickel free, stamped with the Winged Unicorn, as an Argentium Silver Trademark Registered User, number AS2475. If you are a brand putting together a children's range, send us the designs and we will quote them.