Alpacca Silver Marks: What Alpaca Stamps Really Mean

An Alpacca or Alpaca mark means the piece is made of nickel silver, a silver-coloured alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. Despite the name, it contains no silver (Wikipedia; MGS Refining). The standard mix is 60% copper, 20% nickel and 20% zinc (Wikipedia), and the German definition of Neusilber allows 47 to 64% copper, 10 to 25% nickel and 15 to 42% zinc (German Wikipedia).

The name has nothing to do with the animal. Wikipedia explains that the Berndorf metalworks in Austria, established in 1843, popularised "Alpacca" as a trademark, and it became a common name for the alloy in northern Europe. MGS Refining notes that the metal is widely used for jewelry and crafts in Mexico, Central America and South America, which is why so many souvenir pieces from those countries carry the word.

• ALPACCA, ALPACA: nickel silver.
• GERMAN SILVER, NICKEL SILVER, NEUSILBER, ARGENTAN, MAILLECHORT: other names for the same alloy (Wikipedia; German Wikipedia).
• EPNS: electro-plated nickel silver, a nickel silver base with a thin coat of silver; see EPNS marks.
• CHINASILBER, ALSENID: German names for silver-plated nickel silver (German Wikipedia).

None of these is a silver standard. Real silver fineness marks are three digits in parts per thousand, such as 800 or 925; see 800 and 830 silver marks. In the United States, US rules allow "sterling" only for at least 925 parts per thousand silver and "coin silver" for at least 900 (FTC 16 CFR 23.5).

No. Nickel silver "does not contain silver, but resembles it" (Wikipedia). The alloy imitates the look of silver: a German competition in 1823 set out to perfect an alloy with the closest visual similarity to silver, and Ernst August Geitner and the Henniger brothers both achieved it independently (German and English Wikipedia). Its model was paktong, a Chinese white copper alloy first recorded in Europe in 1597 and exported from Canton through the 18th century (Wikipedia).

A silver-plated alpaca piece has a thin layer of real silver on the surface, but the amount is too small to matter for value.

Not as metal. MGS Refining describes alpaca as less financially valuable than silver, and refiners do not buy it as a precious metal. What gives a piece value is the design, the workmanship and the maker; MGS Refining notes that the metal remains popular with jewelers and craftsmen, so well-made signed pieces can still sell to collectors.

For comparison, sterling silver held about $1.90 of silver per gram on 24 September 2026, based on Kitco's silver bid of $63.73 per troy ounce (our calculation: 92.5% silver). A 50-gram alpaca spoon and a 50-gram sterling spoon look alike, but only the sterling one has about $95 of silver in it.

• Read the marks first. Sterling carries 925, Sterling or Ster, or a national hallmark such as the British lion; see silver markings on silverware. Alpaca carries one of the names above, or no mark at all.
• Ask for a test. A jeweller or silver buyer can test the metal if the marks are unclear.
• Be wary of "silver" coins and medals in this metal. MGS Refining warns that counterfeiters have used nickel silver for coins and medallions sold as silver.

When people ask about "the 5 standard silver marks", they usually mean the British system. Wikipedia lists five traditional components: the maker's mark, the standard mark (the lion passant for sterling), the city or assay office mark, the date letter, and, on Irish silver, the figure of Hibernia (introduced in 1730). A sixth, the duty mark showing the monarch's head, was struck from 1 December 1784 until 1890. Today Assay Office London lists three compulsory marks (sponsor's mark, millesimal fineness mark and assay office mark) and two optional ones (date letter and a traditional fineness symbol such as the lion). An alpaca piece never carries a genuine set of these, because assay offices do not hallmark base metal.

The marks that add most value are the maker's marks of famous silversmiths and firms, on solid silver. Wikipedia notes of the 18th-century London silversmith Paul de Lamerie that his mark raises the market value of silver. Among American makers, Tiffany, Gorham and Reed & Barton are well known and used their own date-mark systems, because the US had no national assay system before 1868 (Wikipedia). See our pages on Tiffany marks, Gorham marks and Georg Jensen marks.

On alpaca the maker still matters, but a famous name on nickel silver is worth far less than the same name on sterling.

Because nickel silver contains nickel, MGS Refining advises people with nickel allergies to avoid wearing alpaca jewelry. If you notice a skin reaction to a piece, stop wearing it and ask a doctor or pharmacist for advice.

AntiqLens can read the stamp from a close-up photo and tell you whether it is a silver standard or a base-metal name.

Research and drafting for this page were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed below. Prices are copied from the named auction house, dealer or guide with the sale date where the source gives one and the date we checked it; asking prices and estimates are labelled as such, and where a figure could not be confirmed we say so rather than estimate. If you find an error, tell us and we will correct it.