Silver Threepenny Coin Earrings. English Silver coinage was kept to a high standard from the 1500s, 925 parts in 1000 Silver, Sterling Silver, and was not debased until 1919, at the end of the first World War. That war cost Britain dearly and standards set in place for centuries loosened. That lowering of standards can be clearly seen in the jewellery produced in England in the inter-war years, when, quite suddenly, the market was forced to turn its focus on the worker rather than on the gentry.
That the British Empire did not simultaneously debase the Silver coinage of its great colony, India, was a revealing indication of the colonizers’ sensibilities at  the time concerning the importance of the role Silver coinage played in the fabric of Indian life.