Juno & Sterling

Glossary

Jewellery has a vocabulary, and most of it was never explained to you. Here is what the words mean, and what we mean when we use them.

You do not need any of these words to use Juno & Sterling; Juno speaks plain English and will explain anything you ask. But knowing what a hallmark guarantees, or what vermeil actually is, makes you harder to mislead anywhere you shop. That seems worth ten minutes.

The words we use

Juno: The guide you talk to. Juno asks about the person and the moment before showing you anything, then curates a shortlist and tells you why each piece is on it.; How we use it: Juno is the only voice here. Every recommendation, and every explanation behind it, comes from her.
Sterling: The quiet half of the name. Sterling is our trust standard: verified facts about the retailer behind every piece, shown on the product itself.; How we use it: Sterling never speaks and never generates anything. What you see in a Sterling panel is checked data, not opinion. If you want it explained, ask Juno.
Sterling Score: A single grade, A+ to C, given to every retailer we carry. It covers returns and warranty, ethics and sustainability, customer experience, and independence.; How we use it: No retailer below C is carried at all. The grade is shown openly on every piece; how it is calculated is explained on our How Sterling Scores page.
Shortlist: The small set of pieces Juno lands on for you, usually three to six, each with a note on why it belongs there.; How we use it: A shortlist is meant to end a search, not start one. You can save yours, share it, or put it to a vote.
Juno's note: The sentence or two attached to a recommended piece explaining why it is right for the brief: the person, the occasion, the budget.; How we use it: If we cannot write an honest note for a piece, we do not recommend it.
Brand portfolio: The set of jewellers and retailers whose pieces we recommend. Each one has passed the Sterling assessment before a single piece appears here.; How we use it: The portfolio grows only when the standard is met, never to fill a catalogue.

Metals

Carat (gold): A measure of gold purity, out of 24 parts. 24ct is pure gold, 18ct is 75% gold, and 9ct is 37.5% gold. Higher carat means a richer colour and a softer metal; 9ct and 18ct are the standards for British fine jewellery. In America the spelling is karat, with a k.; How we use it: We write it as 9ct or 18ct. The same word also measures stone weight; the context tells you which is meant.
Yellow gold: Gold in its natural colour, alloyed with a little silver and copper for strength. Warm, classic, and the safest answer when you do not know which metal someone wears.
White gold: Gold alloyed with white metals such as palladium or silver, usually finished with a thin plating of rhodium for brightness. That rhodium layer wears with time and can be re-plated; a good jeweller treats this as routine maintenance, not a fault.
Rose gold: Gold alloyed with a higher share of copper, which gives it a soft pink tone. The blush deepens slightly with wear.
Sterling silver: Silver at 92.5% purity, alloyed with copper for durability. The standard for silver jewellery, and the base metal for gold vermeil. It tarnishes gently with air and skin; a polishing cloth brings it straight back.; How we use it: No relation to our Sterling, though we like that both stand for a standard.
Platinum: A naturally white precious metal, denser and rarer than gold. It does not need plating, wears slowly, and develops a soft satin surface called a patina rather than losing metal when scratched. The traditional choice for rings meant to be worn every day for decades.
Gold vermeil: Sterling silver covered with a substantial layer of gold, at least 2.5 microns thick by the accepted standard. Pronounced ver-may. A precious metal all the way through, which is what separates it from ordinary plating.; How we use it: We treat vermeil as honest, wearable fine jewellery at a gentler price. We always say when a piece is vermeil rather than solid gold.
Gold plated: A thin layer of gold over a base metal such as brass. The layer is measured in fractions of a micron and will wear through with regular use. Fine for fashion pieces; not what you buy to mark a moment.; How we use it: Pieces that are merely plated sit below our floor for milestone gifts, and Juno will say so rather than let the word gold do the selling.
Recycled gold: Gold recovered from existing jewellery, industry, and scrap, refined back to purity. Chemically identical to newly mined gold, without new mining. An increasingly common standard among the better British jewellers.; How we use it: Recycled metals count towards a retailer’s Sterling Score.
Hallmark: The set of small marks struck into a precious metal piece by one of the four UK assay offices (London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Edinburgh), certifying the metal and its purity. Legally required in the UK for most gold, silver, and platinum jewellery above minimum weights. A hallmark is a legal guarantee, not a brand stamp.; How we use it: If a piece sold in the UK should carry a hallmark and does not, that is a reason to walk away. Our retailers hallmark as the law requires.

Stones

Carat (stones): A measure of a gemstone’s weight: one carat is 0.2 grams. Two stones of the same carat can look quite different in size depending on the cut and the stone’s density.
The four Cs: Cut, colour, clarity, and carat: the four measures used to grade diamonds. Cut matters most to how a stone actually looks on the hand; it governs the light. The other three are easier to compare on paper than to see across a table.; How we use it: Juno will talk you through the Cs when they matter, and tell you when they stop mattering to the eye and start only mattering to the certificate.
Lab-grown diamond: A real diamond, grown in a laboratory rather than mined. Chemically and optically identical to a mined stone; a jeweller cannot tell them apart by eye. Lab-grown stones cost significantly less and carry no mining footprint, though unlike mined stones they have little resale market.; How we use it: We treat lab-grown as a legitimate choice, not a lesser one, and we always say which a stone is. The right answer depends on what the piece is for.
Moissanite: A lab-created stone of silicon carbide, often used as a diamond alternative. It is not a diamond and we would never describe it as one; it is brighter and more colourful in its sparkle, noticeably harder-wearing than most stones, and far less expensive.
Sapphire: A precious stone of the corundum family, second only to diamond in hardness, which makes it a sound choice for everyday rings. Blue is the classic, but sapphires come in nearly every colour except red; a red corundum is a ruby.
Provenance: Where a stone or metal came from, and whether that journey can be shown. Traceable means the origin is documented back to the source, not assumed.; How we use it: When a retailer can document provenance, Sterling shows it. When they cannot, we say nothing rather than imply it.
Conflict-free: Diamonds certified under the Kimberley Process as not funding armed conflict. It is the industry baseline rather than a high bar; genuinely traceable origin is the stronger claim.; How we use it: We treat conflict-free as the minimum, not a selling point. Retailers earn Sterling credit for going further.

Settings and styles

Claw setting: Small metal claws (called prongs in America) that hold a stone with the minimum of metal, letting light in from every side. The classic way to set a solitaire. Claws want checking every few years; it takes a jeweller moments.
Bezel setting: A slim band of metal wrapped fully around the stone’s edge. More protective and more modern-looking than claws, and the better choice for people who work with their hands.
Pavé: Small stones set closely together across a surface, like paving, so the metal almost disappears into sparkle. Pronounced pah-vay.
Solitaire: A single stone, set alone. The most traditional form for an engagement ring, and the form that puts all the weight of the choice on the one stone.
Eternity ring: A band set with a continuous line of stones. A full eternity runs the whole way round; a half eternity sets stones across the front only, which costs less, resizes more easily, and sits more comfortably. Traditionally given for anniversaries or a first child.
Signet ring: A ring with a flat face, historically engraved with a seal or initials. Once formal, now one of the most versatile pieces going, worn by everyone and engraved with anything or nothing.
Huggie: A small hoop earring that sits close against the lobe, hugging it. The everyday hoop: comfortable enough to sleep in, which is how most people wear them.
Demi-fine: A marketing word, not a standard. It usually means gold vermeil or plated pieces priced between fashion and fine jewellery, but there is no rule about what it must mean.; How we use it: We avoid the word. We would rather tell you exactly what a piece is made of.

Buying with us

Returns window: How long you have to return a piece for a refund. UK law gives you 14 days for most online purchases; the retailers we rate well go comfortably beyond that. Bespoke, engraved, and resized pieces are usually excluded, which is worth knowing before you personalise.; How we use it: Sterling shows the window on every piece, and flags when a window is too short for a gift bought ahead of Christmas.
Warranty: What the retailer promises to repair or replace, and for how long. A good warranty covers manufacturing faults; none covers ordinary wear or accidents, whatever the leaflet implies.
Aftercare: Everything a jeweller does for a piece after it is sold: cleaning, polishing, re-plating rhodium, checking claws, restringing pearls. The mark of a jeweller who expects to see you again.; How we use it: Aftercare counts towards the Sterling Score. It is one of the clearest signs of the sort of jeweller we want to send you to.
Made to order: A piece made for you after you buy it, rather than picked from a shelf. Expect two to six weeks. Worth every day of the wait for the right piece, and worth none of it if the occasion is Saturday.; How we use it: Juno will always weigh the lead time against your date before recommending a made-to-order piece.
Commission: When you buy a piece we recommended, the retailer pays us a small percentage. That is how Juno & Sterling earns; you never pay more because you came through us.; How we use it: It does not influence what we recommend. The full explanation is on our How we earn page.

Missing a word you were wondering about? Ask Juno; she enjoys this sort of question. For how retailers are graded, see How Sterling Scores, and for how we make money, see How we earn.