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10 ways to recognize real sterling silver and avoid scams

10 ways to recognize real sterling silver and avoid scams

What is sterling silver?

Sterling silver consists of 92.5% silver and 7.5% of another metal, mostly copper, but germanium, zinc and platinum may also be used. For this reason, sterling silver is popularly known as «925 sterling silver» or «925 silver».

The reason why silver is combined with other metals is to introduce a bit of hardness, because it is very difficult to use pure silver, which is very soft and malleable. 925 sterling silver is harder than fine silver (= pure silver) or 950 silver and is therefore a good choice for everyday rings. It is more resistant to shocks. But it has less shine.

Fake sterling silver in the world and in Peru

Unfortunately there are a lot of jewelry sellers who say their product is sterling silver, but in reality it is not. Although sterling silver is cheaper than other more expensive metals like gold, cheap fake sterling silver jewelry is sold in large numbers on the market.

For example, it is common to come across sellers who sell jewelry that only has a silver cover and they say it is sterling silver jewelry. Such jewelry has little silver content and tends to deteriorate quickly. The worst abuses can be found in fashion jewelry: According to the Associated Press, a recent analysis “found that 31 adult fashion jewelery items purchased from retail stores had at least 40 percent cadmium, and the majority were more than 90 percent” .

But even when it comes to fine jewelry, supposedly produced with sterling silver, in many cases it is a hoax. On the internet, especially in virtual stores like E-Bay, a lot of cheap silver jewelry is sold, mostly produced in China or India. It is advisable to be careful with Chinese silver, which is marked «S925», which is generally nickel and copper with a silver coating. In countries like India, the silver jewelry industry is an important cottage industry. Silver is mixed with 20-30% cadmium and is then used to make silver jewelry.

Inexpensive silver jewelry is sold, for example, in European and US outdoor markets and in specialty stores for traditional crafts. A scientific research in Switzerland carried out an analysis of such jewels: The composition of the material of 21 samples was analyzed. 12 samples contained a minimum of 20 percent cadmium (the highest value was 43.9 percent). Lower levels of nickel, copper, zinc, and lead were also found. Another scientific investigation in the Czech Republic found cadmium contents from 13 to 44.6% in all samples.

The problem with fake sterling silver is not limited to jewelry from India or China. Likewise, in the jewelers of the center of Lima in Peru, it is very common to produce and sell this type of silver.

Cadmium: a toxic metal in your jewelry

Cadmium is a bluish-white soft metal. Cadmium is generally not present in the environment as a pure metal. It is found primarily as part of zinc-containing minerals, but can also be found in lead and copper ores.

Cadmium is a heavy metal that is toxic to humans, animals, plants, and microorganisms. You will not have immediate health problems if your jewelry contains cadmium. But in the long term, cheap jewelry is one of the sources of cadmium that accumulates over time in the human body until it reaches the critical level after which its presence begins to cause disease. The question therefore is: would you knowingly use something that is potentially harmful to your long-term health?

Cadmium is known to accumulate in the kidneys, and some scientists believe that damage to kidney tissue can lead to kidney disease, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Cadmium-related kidney damage leads to calcium deficiencies in the rest of the body, particularly the skeleton. The risks related to cadmium exposure through the skin (dermal exposure) should not be underestimated. A scientific study investigated the reabsorption of cadmium using human skin and they were able to demonstrate a penetration of up to 12.7% of the dose of cadmium applied to the skin.

Lead and nickel: two more substances that should not be in jewelry.

Nickel allergy is a common cause of allergic contact dermatitis. Nickel allergy is often associated with earrings and other jewelry. Symptoms usually occur 12 to 48 hours after contact with nickel. You may notice itching, redness, a rash, dry patches, and swelling of the skin. Sometimes blisters follow, which may break, leaving scabs and scabs. If left untreated, your skin can become darker, leathery, and cracked. Most likely, the rash is only on the part of the skin that is in direct contact with the nickel. In severe cases, the rash can spread. Sweating can make it worse.

Lead is a toxic metal that does not break down in the environment and accumulates in our bodies. High levels of lead have been found in jewelry, especially inexpensive children’s jewelry. Exposure to lead can cause a number of health problems, including:

  • behavior problems
  • learning difficulties
  • joint and muscle weakness
  • anemia
  • organ failure and even
  • death

Why do people sell counterfeit silver, while knowing that their product harms the customer?

The reason is a vicious cycle in which sellers compete with each other with ever lower prices, in combination with an uninformed customer who wants to buy cheaper and cheaper without considering why the product may be offered so cheaply. This is becomming even worse because in recent years, gold, silver and platinum are not the only metals that suffered drastic increases in prices. Tin, zinc and lead have also risen in price. In this situation, cadmium is cheaper than tin, zinc or lead, which has caused unscrupulous manufacturers to use it, despite knowing that this material puts the customer at risk.

For them it is an easy and cheap alternative because cadmium acts as the most effective deoxidizer in silver alloys when silver is melted, and a silver alloy containing cadmium is much more malleable and ductile, which facilitates turning and stretching of the material.

 

The «925» mark does not provide any guarantee

In recent years more health conscious and concerned customers are looking for ways to recognize fake sterling silver to avoid the risk to their health. In the internet a series of suggestions arose how to identify real sterling silver. The main advice is to look for the «925» mark on the jewelry, advice that comes with the notice that jewels that do not show this mark would not be sterling silver. Unfortunately this advice is false. The 925 mark would only serve as a guarantee if there would be an independent entity or an authority that assigns this supposed quality seal. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case: it is the same jeweler who marks the silver. That is why the mark is found on real sterling silver as well as on fake silver, without the use of the mark being controlled or audited. Therefore, in reality, the presence of the «925» mark has no value whatsoever and its absence neither means that the product is fake silver. Many of our silver pieces are not marked, mostly because there is no good place on the jewelry to mark it without affecting the design. Nevertheless our jewelry is made with sterling silver or even with fine silver (pure silver)

 

 

 

10 Tips how to protect yourself from fake sterling silver or contaminated jewelry.

1.) Avoid buying cheap fashion jewelry altogether.

2.) Avoid buying jewelry produced in India or China.

3.) Do not buy jewelry so called sterling silver with suspiciously low prices and resist occasional offers on the internet. Preferably buy from recognized companies. For your health, it is better to buy a jewelry of a higher price with a guarantee, than to buy three cheap jewels that carry the risk of contaminating your with their toxic metals.

Gemrock Peru offers Cadmium, lead and nickel free sterling silver and fine silver jewelry.

At Gemrock Peru we only offer jewelry that has been produced with either real sterling silver or fine silver (99.9% pure). Not all of our jewels bear the mark «925», because in some cases the design of the jewelry does not offer a space to engrave the mark or in other cases it is fine silver. However, as a company we guarantee that our silver is always of high quality and cadmium free. In order to guarantee this level of purity and quality, we purchase the raw silver from the mines ourselves (this pure silver being the raw material for the process of creating sterling silver). Subsequently, we carry out the production of our sterling silver exclusively with an associated jewelery company, in which we are involved in the production supervision process.

We do not buy silver accessories from third party companies but all production is under our control. We offer our clients the visit of our workshops in complete transparency and in case of any doubt we are willing to carry out a nitric acid test of our silver in the presence of the client.

In case you buy jewelry from other companies, we suggest the following ways to verify that your sterling silver really is what it promises to be:

4.) In the case of rings, you can ask the jeweler if the size of the ring can be changed. In case the answer is negative, be careful. If it is genuine silver, the size can be changed. Fake silver rings when resized will get damaged with a permanent mark, which is why somebody that sells fake sterling silver will refuse to resize the ring.

5.) Check the color of the silver, if it has yellow spots like in the picture or reddish spots, do not buy the jewel. Real sterling silver does not show colored spots. Many times when fake silver is exposed to heat, it turns into a bright copper color with a tint of green and orange; This means that it exposes the base metal, indicating that the silver was just a top layer of coverage.

6.) Rub the jewel with a soft textured white cloth, if you notice blackish marks on the cloth then you can be sure it is real sterling silver. This occurs because when sterling silver is exposed to air. The air causes it to oxidize and deteriorate over time, causing black marks to appear on the cloth.

7.) Make the nitric acid test (You can buy a kit and do this test at home. But you must be very careful when handling nitric acid. You should always wear gloves and eye protection.). When drops of nitric acid are added to counterfeit silver jewelry, it loses its color. If the jewelry is made of real sterling silver, the area where the nitric acid drop falls will appear creamy, while if it is fake it will appear greenish. Always ask a seller if you can do the nitric acid test before buying sterling silver jewelry. Nitric acid has no effect on 925 sterling silver. If the seller is selling real jewelry, they should have no problem testing it.

8.) Use the scent test. Sterling silver has no odor, if there is any metallic or other odor, it is because there is a lot of copper present.

9.) Use the magnet test. This is a simple test, magnets have no effect on silver, just as they have no effect on gold or platinum. But if you find that the jewelry is attracted to the magnet, then it will be clear that it is not made from real sterling silver.

10.) Run an ice test. Silver has the highest rate of thermal conductivity among known metals, that is, it conducts heat extremely fast. You can use this knowledge to determine if your item is made of silver. There are two ways to perform the ice test.

  • Place the jewel on a flat surface, put an ice cube on top and another on the table. If the item is made of silver, the ice cube on the jewel will melt much faster than the one on the table.
  • Fill a container with several ice cubes and 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water. Place the silver item and a similarly sized non-silver item in the ice water. The silver item will be cool to the touch in about 10 seconds. The non-silver item will not get as cold in the same amount of time.

 

* Subramanian Senthilkumaran, Chidambaram Ananth, Sandeep B Gore and Ponniah Thirumalaikolundusubramanian, 2014: “Cadmium toxicity in silversmith: Safety is never too much!”, Indian J Occup Environ Med. 2014 Sep-Dec; 18 (3): 163., doi: 10.4103 / 0019-5278.146919, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4292205/

** Dr. Martin Streicher-Porte, Alexandra Buckenmayer, Dr. Susanne Pfenninger, 2008: “What goes around comes around? – High levels of cadmium in low cost jewelry ”, file: /// C: /Users/Usuario/Documents/01%20Gemrock%20Peru/05%20Aura/blog%20articles/cadmium_ewaste_2008.pdf

*** Miloslav Pouzar, Magdalena Zvolská, Oldřich Jarolím and Lenka Audrlická Vavrušová: ”The Health Risk of Cd Released from Low-Cost Jewelry”, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5451971/

**** Mayo Clinic: Niquel Allergy; https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/nickel-allergy/symptoms-causes/syc-20351529

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