Science in our modern age of technological progress does not stand still, because every day more and more new ways are being invented to turn it for the benefit of humanity in general and specific people in particular, including not the most clean in terms of relations with the law and conscience - scammers selling silver, silver-plated and made "under silver" jewelry. In order not to become their victims, you need to resort to the services of specialists, or at least know how to determine silver at home. This is what our article will be devoted to.
First you need to know the properties of the material itself, from which women's and men's jewelry is made. Silver is a noble metal with high thermal conductivity properties, bends well and is not magnetized. Knowing this, we can offer several ways to determine silver at home:
- jewellery, rings and cutlery made of silver easily absorb the heat of the hand, and if part of the product is dipped in hot water, then very quickly it will all become as hot as this water;
- if you bring a magnet to a product made of real silver, it will continue to lie in its place, since magnetization is not characteristic of noble metals;
- the third way refers to a kind of extreme measures, which are better not to resort to unless absolutely necessary - unlike a brass fake, a real silver product can be bent.
In addition, there are a number of ways to determine silver at home, such as:
- rubbing the silver in your hands - if the product leaves traces, then it contains zinc, which indicates the low quality of the metal;
- scratch with a needle - if the silver slips, exposing the base of another metal, then you have a fake;
- rub with chalk - after contact with real silver, the chalk begins to blacken (it also works with silver-plated objects);
- anoint with sulfuric ointment sold in any pharmacy - real silver darkens when in contact with sulfur (as in the previous case, it can also work when the object is simply silver plated). The color is restored after boiling the item in a soda solution with a piece of aluminum foil;
- drip with iodine - in contact with it, silver turns black, and the higher the sample, the faster the reaction will occur. Another thing is that such blackness cannot be subsequently washed off;
- check the chemical reaction - drop nitric acid, and then drop a solution of sodium chloride there, as a result of which a curd precipitate of silver chloride should appear in the drop(view under magnifying glass). If the precipitate is crystalline, then we have lead chloride, and the item is a fake.
Some people are able to identify silver by smell, but now this method should be relied upon less and less, because the aroma of this metal can be imparted to the product by fragrance.
We looked at several options for how to determine silver at home, but each of these methods allows a certain error, especially if they are used by a non-specialist. Therefore, to determine the sample and quality of silver, we advise you to contact a specialized jewelry store or pawnshop, where you will be given an accurate answer to the question of whether the item is silver, silver plated or fake for a small fee.
