Differentiation of Authentic Silver Jewelry from Counterfeit

Silver jewelry is the synonym of fashion, which is affordable in price and white in texture, and superior material for jewelry polishing and carving. For this reason, silver jewelry is always the ornament pursued by the young. Online products of silver jewelry are numerous and dizzy, making choosing silver jewelry a big headache by which a lot of buyers are inflicted. Today, I’ll give what I’ve learned about how to choose silver jewelry, which I hope to be helpful for you. And you’ll be appreciated for your unhesitating opinion due to my limited expertise in this aspect, thank you in advance

To begin with, I’d tell how to distinguish authentic silver jewelry from counterfeit one.

See the color, also called appearance testing. Higher purity and silvery whiteness correspond to fine, uniform and bright appearance with polished luster. If the silver jewelry contains lead, the appearance displays crack pattern with cinerous trace; If the silver jewelry contains cupronickel, the appearance displays roughness and rotten center and touch of dryness. Even though the surface of oxidized silver includes “dark rust”, it’s pure black and bright, in contrast, silver jewelries contains lead, tin and cupronickel are without luster and in dull color.

Weigh in the hand: the silver is higher in density than common metals; generally, “aluminum is relatively light, silver is heavy, and cupronickel is moderate in weight.” thus, initial judgment can be made by weighing silver in the hand. If an ornament is big in volume but light in weight, we can initially judge that it’s made of metal other than silver.

Check roughness: toughness of silver is lower than cupronickel, and toughness of lead and tin is higher, thus it can be tested by scratching on the object surface with a pin; if the pin slips without leaving any trace on the surface, it can be determined as ornament made of cupronickel; if the ornament is made of lead or tin, the trace will be easily visible and striking; if faint trace is left on the object, initial judgment on silver jewelry can be made. Fine silver jewelry is apt to deformation by hand pulling or folding.

Listen to the sound: if the jewelry is made of high-purity silver, it does not sound loudly and is lack of elasticity, except flops; lower-purity silver has duller, coarser and higher pitch of sound; ornament made of cupronickel has crisp, rapid and short sound; ornament made of lead and tin has toneless and short sound and lack of elasticity.

Look the cut to determine the purity: cut silver jewelry, look the cut color, if the cut is silk white and soft, the surface is smooth and exquisite, oxidized surface is dark and bright in luster, then it can be concluded to be about 98% in purity; if the cut is coarse and soft, in reddish color, the purity is about 95%; if the cut is grey white, with trace of a bit red, the purity is about 90%; if the cut is stiff and hard to bend by hand, in rosiness or grey color, the purity is about 80%; the silver of about 70% purity features yellowish-white and dry surface, the cut is in mixed reddish and yellowish color, and it’s hard to bend by hand; if the cut is dark reddish or dark yellowish, the purity is lower than 60%.

Features of fake silver: generally, fake silver products are made of red brass, brass, cupronickel, lead, tin, aluminum etc., which have following features: red brass: mauve appearance, cut in black red with patina. Brass: yellow appearance, cut in bean green with patina. Cupronickel: of white appearance, cut in brick grey with patina. Lead: bice, soft, has traces when scratching by nail. Tin: silvery white, soft, has traces when scratching by nail. Aluminum: grayish white, soft and light.