Saturday, January 23, 2010

Sterling Silver Brooches How Can I Tell If My Old Silver Jewelry Is Real Sterling Silver, Or Just Silver Color Or Plate?

How can I tell if my old silver jewelry is real Sterling Silver, or just silver color or plate? - sterling silver brooches

I have several old pins and brooches. The most obvious are marked 925, but there are many that are not marked. None of them stick, magnets and all are heavy for their size. And I can see, no metal has been cut off to expose a possible secondary metal under.

I have a piece, however, appears damaged in a small area should not fall but with my polishing cloth. It does not stick to a magnet not. How do I know whether they are genuine?

In addition, the test may harm the jewelry - especially if they are playing for real money? If they are silver, they could have possibly used the metal, not that stick to a magnet?

1 comments:

Sketcher said...

Hello!

Only iron and iron alloys are like a magnet. Jewelry metal-based money is usually a copper alloy containing various other metals such as tin and nickel.

You can find a jeweler (or Goldsmith) and ask them to test your parts. One solution is to scrape a small amount of metal in an inconspicuous place in the room. In this way he / she can tell if the piece is gilded. Then s / he 'll put a drop of nitric acid, said scraping the purity of silver.

The space could be damaged further coated with rhodium, a metal that increases the brightness of money and provides a durable coating. The coating is gone, leaving a place that is. It may also be that the part is made of metal and silver plated base is gone. Copper alloys oxidized (dark) light, so that the copper and bronze jewelry should be protected by a special lacquer.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

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