# .999 Pure Silver

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/999-pure-silver/553833>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 15, 2010, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/999-pure-silver/553833 "2010-09-15T12:14:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/999-pure-silver/553833/1 "2010-09-15T12:14:01Z")

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Why is it .999 pure silver and not 1.0 pure silver? Is that one-thousandth a sort of hedge against whatever impurities might have been in the forge that day?

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**Author:** ![JoeH2O](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@JoeH2O](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeH2O)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2010, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/999-pure-silver/553833/2 "2010-09-15T12:23:03Z")

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It’s very hard to totally purify any material to absolute purity (as much as Smirnoff would have you believe otherwise!) with a few exceptions. By the time you reach 0.999 it becomes less and less economically feasible to go any further, although it is possible, since you can buy 99.99999% pure silver also if you really need it.