Tracking Down Silver Treasures With 3 Simple Tricks Of The Trade
Whether you enjoy collecting silver jewelry pieces as a hobby or are looking to make a profit, sifting through all of the items that look silver to find the real deal can be a huge undertaking if you don't know what you are doing or have little experience. There are a few simple tricks that you should keep in mind to help you along the way when you are looking for real silver jewelry pieces.
Take a Whiff of the Item
It sounds silly, but the tarnish that builds up on true silver jewelry has a very specific odor. This odor is the result of silver oxide that causes tarnishing on the surface of silver. If you spot a jewelry piece in an estate sale and you are curious if it is silver or not, sniff the piece to see if it has the telltale odor, which can be described as kind of like metal decay. It may kind of tickle your nose a bit. Once you have smelled silver tarnish one time, you will likely be able to almost smell it from afar.
Try the Silver Clanking Test
Silver when tapped against other silver makes a very specific ting. This sound is so reliable that many gold and silver buyers carry a pure silver coin in their pocket just for a testing the sound of speculated silver pieces that they come across in their buying endeavors. The easiest way to do this test with a piece of silver jewelry is to lay the silver piece down and drop a silver coin against it from just above the item. There are actually videos that give good examples of the sounds of real silver you should be looking for, and these can be really helpful if you don't have a lot of experience.
Use a Magnet for Testing
Even though magnets may not be the most reliable silver testing tool, they can be a little helpful if you have nothing else to rely on. Silver is not magnetic, so you know if the magnet sticks to the suspected silver, you know what you have is not a pure piece. However, there are other metals that are not magnetic as well and can resemble the appearance of silver, such as aluminum or zinc. Therefore, the magnet test is not something that you should solely rely on when you are trying to determine whether you should buy a piece of jewelry to resale.
Even though it can be a little tricky, tracking down real silver and separating it from the fake jewelry pieces is something you can do with some experience--even without a professional acid testing kit. For more information, contact Gold for Cash or a similar company.