In jewelry silver, the proportions normally are 80 per cent and 20 percent. Silver plating is a less expensive way to produce decorative pieces and tableware. In this process, a thin coating of silver is applied by electrolysis to an object made of a cheaper metal. As the silver plate wears with time and use, however, the base metal eventually shows through. Another common application of silver, familiar to everyone, is the coating on glass .
Silver is also widely used in dentistry and medicine.
About 20 per cent of the annual industrial consumption of silver goes into sterling, plate, jewelry, mirrors, and dental and medical supplies. Silver is also used in brazing alloys and solders, and in catalysts. Silver's age-old use as coinage has been discontinued to a large extent because of the increasing market value of the metal. This latter drop in usage was partly attributed to a period of record breaking high silver prices in 1979 and 1980. However, a period of stable low prices during the latter 1980s assisted in returning the volume of silver used in coinage to the mid- 1970 levels.