Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Stone: Silver Jubilee

What is the 25th anniversary stone?

The 25th anniversary stone is, strictly speaking, not a stone at all. Twenty-five years is the silver jubilee, and the traditional gift is silver, a metal, as the International Gem Society anniversary list lays out. If you want a gemstone to mark the year instead, the modern gemstone list pairs 25 years with the diamond, and some lists add green tsavorite garnet as a colourful alternative. So you have a choice: lean into the silver theme with a white metal, or mark the milestone with a diamond. We think both are good, and plenty of couples do a bit of each.

Silver, white metals, and the diamond option

Silver is lovely to look at, but it is soft and it tarnishes. On the Mohs hardness scale it sits low, and a ring worn every day will scratch and dull faster than most people expect. For a piece meant to survive another 25 years, we usually recommend a harder white metal. White gold and platinum both hold up far better under daily wear, and platinum in particular almost never needs replacing. Our wedding band metals guide compares them honestly, including cost.

If you go the gemstone route, the diamond is the obvious pick. It scores a 10 on the Mohs scale, the hardest natural gem there is, which is exactly why it became the default for milestone jewellery. A diamond set in white gold or platinum ties the whole silver theme together: white metal, white stone, hard-wearing throughout. Diamonds come in a range of cuts and a few natural colour tints; for most people a near-colourless stone with a good cut gives the most sparkle for the money. Our gemstone guide explains what the four Cs actually mean when you are standing at the counter.

Why silver, and why the diamond crept in

Silver marks 25 years because it is the classic halfway point, older than the modern list of yearly stones. Silver has long stood for something bright and enduring but modest, a fitting note for a couple a quarter-century in. The diamond arrived later, as gemstone versions of the anniversary calendar became popular in the twentieth century and jewellers wanted a stone worthy of the 25th year. There is nothing mystical about any of it. The stones are conventions, not omens. What matters is picking something the wearer will genuinely enjoy for the next stretch of years.

Choosing a piece for 25 years

Here is our honest guidance. If your partner already wears the original engagement ring and loves it, the most meaningful thing is often not a new item but a redesign of the ring they already have. We can add diamonds to the band, rework a tired setting, or rebuild the whole thing while keeping the centre stone. It feels like the same ring, only renewed, which suits a 25th anniversary rather well.

If you want something new, a few options work best:

• Eternity or half-eternity band. A line of small diamonds worn alongside the wedding ring. Practical, and it reads as a clear "we made it to 25" marker.
• Diamond pendant. The easiest gift if you are unsure of ring size or style. It sits with everything and takes no daily beating.
• Diamond stud earrings. Understated, wearable every day, and hard to get wrong.

On setting and care: because a diamond is so hard, you have freedom in how it is set, though the metal around it still matters. Prongs show off the stone but can snag; a bezel (a rim of metal around the stone) protects it and suits active hands. If you choose silver rather than a harder white metal, expect to polish it regularly and keep it away from harsh chemicals. A middle path many couples like is to keep the silver theme in the metal colour but build the piece in platinum or white gold, so it looks like silver and wears like something far tougher. That way the ring still reads as a silver jubilee, but you are not signing up for constant polishing.

Budget is worth talking about plainly too. Silver itself is inexpensive, so if the theme matters more than the material you can mark the year without a large outlay. A diamond adds real cost, and the price climbs steeply with size, so if you want a diamond on a set budget, ask us to prioritise cut over carat: a smaller, well-cut stone sparkles more than a bigger, dull one. Every piece we make is designed and built by our goldsmith on-site in Coquitlam, so we can size, set and finish a 25th-anniversary commission to fit the wearer exactly, and match a new band to a ring you already own. Come in with the old ring and we will work out what suits it.

Frequently asked questions