Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
Yes. If they're rhodium-plated they're probably solid Sterling (my opinion). Rhodium's usually used on Sterling to prevent tarnishing. It doesn't make sense to me to plate with Sterling first, followed by Rhodium.
Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 3:24 am Posts: 4997 Location: McDonough GA
Thanks Rick. I'm reasonably sure they're solid sterling, but i got them so cheap and they're so nice I had my doubts at first. Now I just want to make sure all my bases are covered before I start to sell them.
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2015 10:52 pm Posts: 1 Location: Sussex Court
If the sterling silver ornament you are planning to purchase is made from real sterling, it will surely have a mark indicating the purity of the material. Check the item carefully and if it's a high quality piece, it will surely have the number 925 imprinted on it. Jewelries which do not hold the telephone number can have S, SS or "sterling" imprinted upon them, all of which appears as being the testimony of the reality that this product you might be buying is made utilizing silver.
You can also work with a magnet to learn if the parts you would like to acquire are authentic sterling decorations. The magnet you employ for this specific purpose ought to be a robust a single. Take the magnet and manage it on the merchandise. Objects made out of sterling silver is not going to bring in the magnet to it.
Now you have established that the chains sold to you as sterling silver are, in fact, plated brass, I suggest taking them to your local Trading Standards Department together with the receipt and getting them to haul the guy into Court. Won't get you your money back, but you'll get a lot of satisfaction from hearing the squeals!
Another trick worth learning is using the solution to give a reasonable indication of quality. Make up your solution, say 15% nitric acid in water, then add, say 10 grams per 100 ml of Potassium Dichromate. Obtain, from a reputable source, so you know its good, pieces of fine silver (1000/1000), Britannia silver (957/1000), sterling silver (925/1000), coin silver (900/1000) and 800/1000 silver. Apply a drop of the solution to each piece and note the differences in colour. A little practice and you will be able to determine purity fairly accurately.
As a complete side issue, it is interesting to note that Archimedes discovered and developed the whole science of specific gravity to solve a similar problem. The king of Syracuse (at the time a Greek colony) had commissioned a new crown from a group of goldsmiths and given them a quantity of gold for the job, when complete the goldsmiths gave the king his crown and the unused gold, showing that the weight tallied with the weight of gold originally given to them. Archimedes, as top scientist of Syracuse, was given the job of checking whether the crown was the quality of gold that had been provided, or whether it had been debased. To determine this he came up with the idea of specific gravity (or, as it used to be called in my younger days "Archimedes Principle"). This shines a light on Greek mental attitudes, since the Egyptians has been using fire assay for at least a thousand years before his time. Clearly the Greeks did not like getting their hands dirty. Incidentally, the goldsmiths had had their hands in the till and met a most unpleasant end.
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