Tips on how to determine silver at home

Science in our modern age of technological progress does not stand still, as every day new and new ways are being invented to turn it for the benefit of mankind as a whole and specific people in particular, including not the cleanest ones in terms of relations with law and conscience - Scammers, selling silver, silver-plated and made "silver" ornaments. In order not to become their victims, one must resort to the services of specialists or at least to know how to determine silver at home. Our article will be devoted to this.

First you need to know the properties of the material itself, from which women's and men's jewelry is made. Silver - a noble metal, which has the properties of high thermal conductivity, well bends and does not magnetize. Knowing this, you can suggest several ways how to determine silver at home:

1. Jewelry, silver rings and cutlery easily adopt the warmth of the hand, and if part of the product is dipped in hot water, then very quickly it will become as hot as this water;
2. If you bring a magnet to the product of real silver, it will continue to lie in its place, since noble metals are not magnetizable;
3. The third method refers to a kind of extreme measures, which, unless absolutely necessary, it is better not to resort to - unlike a brass fake, a genuine silver product can be bent.

In addition, there are still a number of ways of how to determine silver at home, such as:

1. Rub silver in hands - if the product leaves traces, it means that it contains zinc, which indicates a low quality of metal;
2. Scratch with a needle - if the silver slips, exposing the base of another metal, then before you a fake;
3. Rub with chalk - after contact with real silver, the chalk begins to turn black (it works with silvered objects);
4. Anoint with sulfur ointment, sold in any pharmacy, - this silver in contact with sulfur darkens (as in the previous case, it can work even when the object is simply silvered). The color is restored after boiling the object in a solution of soda with a piece of aluminum foil;
5. Drip with iodine - when it comes in contact with it, the silver turns black, and the higher the sample, the faster the reaction. It's another matter that such blackness can not be washed off afterwards;
6. Check the chemical reaction - drip the nitric acid, and then drop it into the solution of table salt, as a result of which a curdled silver chloride precipitate should appear in the drop (viewed under the magnifying glass). If the precipitate is crystalline, then lead chloride is in front of us, and the object is a fake.

Some people are able to determine silver by smell, but now this method should be relied on less and less, because the aroma of this metal can be attached to the product flavor.

We have considered several options for how to determine silver at home, but each of these methods allows a certain error, especially if they are applied by a layman. Therefore, to determine the quality and quality of silver, we advise you to contact a specialized jewelry store or pawnshop where you will be given a precise answer to the question whether the product is silver, silver plated or fake for a small fee.