Decoding Jewelry Markings: Understanding '325 China' & CZ

Question
Recently I bought a bracelet (and an estate sale) - I thought it was simply lovely. Once I got it home and looked at it more closely, I discovered the jeweler markings on the back - 325 (with some kind of symbol I can't identify) China CZ... It's a bracelet in what I thought was Silver (or Silver colored metal), with Sapphires & Diamonds - at no point did I think any of them were anything fine, actually I was expecting them to either be man-made, glass, or some kind of CZ (diamonoid, or something)... So the CZ doesn't surprise me - the markings I was a little surprised at was 325 China. I am assuming this means made in China, and 325 is some kind of Silver / alloy rating (like 800 would be 80% Silver / 20% Copper)... Sooooo my question is - what does 325 China mean? I am just curious. I still love the bracelet and would love it regardless of what the answer is, I am just real curious what I have here... Thanks so much for your time.


Answer
Hello, Marina.

As we both know, estate does not mean old.  Items in an estate sale might be antiques or purchased new not long ago.  I think your bracelet is likely of fairly recent manufacture, considering the China country of origin stamp and CZ.  

I have seen much jewelry from China and realize that country is a large player both fine and lesser quality jewelry imported into the USA.  Fortunately, most I have seen from China is just what the markings say it is. The problem with your bracelet is an unknown symbol and the numerical marking 325 which really has no validity as a metal quality mark according to current regulations.

This would not be a white gold bracelet because the numerical value would be even less than the 375 mark of 9 karat gold, the lowest karat allowed in the UK and not accepted at all in the USA with 10k or 417 being the lowest karat allowed.

If this is silver, I suspect the marking should be 925 and not 325.  Look closely and see if the 3 is totally clear and deliberate or if it could possibly be a distorted or partial 9.  If the marking is not 925, then this number may have nothing at all to do with the metal quality. In that case, we really do not know what you have without a metal test and I doubt testing would be worth the expense in this case.

Regardless, enjoy your bracelet.  :  )  God Bless and Peace.  Thomas.