Metals 101 - Silver/Gold?

raiderguy10

Been practicing now with my Ace 250 for about 2 weeks. Things have been going really well. I'm mostly sticking to parks now to get lots of practice and I've turned up some intersting items.

I found a silver cross that is stamped 925. That's sterling silver - correct? Are all silver/gold items stamped somewhere - or how do I know if what I find is silver/gold. I've found a few bracelets and rings - plus some other pendants but the cross is the only thing stamped. How do I know if the other stuff I find is real or not? And a real noobie question - if I weigh the cross and let's say it's 3 grams - how do I find how much it'd be worth? I know it's elementary stuff - but I've never learned about metals before....but have been wanting to try for quite some time.

The last question I'd have is with diamonds. I found this really cool butterfly pendant that has a bunch of small diamonds. I also found a small ring that has diamonds in the shape of a cross. Obviously since I found them on playground parks I don't believe they are real - but how can I find out if they are real or not?

WhiteTornado

Nice finds! Pictures would help if you could post them. Maybe I need to come out your way to do some metal detecting .

Yep, .925 is considered sterling silver. By comparison, circulating US silver coins made prior to 1965 are .900 silver. I have yet to find any jewelry, but I'm guessing most jewelry, especially the modern stuff, would be stamped somewhere if real. As far as value, take total weight x fineness. So for your 3g cross, take .925 x 3 = 2.775g, or 0.098 ounces. Silver is at about $21/oz, so you have a little over $2 in the melt value of the silver.

I wouldn't know how to determine if the diamonds are real, short of taking it to a jeweler. Maybe there are some simple ways to separate obvious fakes/costume jewels from anything that might be real. Try some Google searches. Some info might be found on gem & rock collector sites.

I'm sure others with more experience with jewelry will also reply with better info, but I hope this helps some.

johnny9434

nice pick ups. we need pics

raiderguy10

I have a thread i was going to update. This weekend I'll post some pics of the finds my kids and I have had over the last 2 weeks. Some cool stuff for sure! So watch for that this weekend.

raiderguy10

I'll also change the title of that thread when I post as well

lordmarcovan

Good job!

Yep, .925 is Sterling silver. That's 925/1000ths pure, or 92.5% pure silver, in other words.

.900 fine is sometimes called "coin silver", even when no coins are involved. So called because that was the standard for most US silver coins.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_standards

pcgs69

<< <i>Been practicing now with my Ace 250 for about 2 weeks. Things have been going really well. I'm mostly sticking to parks now to get lots of practice and I've turned up some intersting items.

I found a silver cross that is stamped 925. That's sterling silver - correct? Are all silver/gold items stamped somewhere - or how do I know if what I find is silver/gold. I've found a few bracelets and rings - plus some other pendants but the cross is the only thing stamped. How do I know if the other stuff I find is real or not? And a real noobie question - if I weigh the cross and let's say it's 3 grams - how do I find how much it'd be worth? I know it's elementary stuff - but I've never learned about metals before....but have been wanting to try for quite some time.

The last question I'd have is with diamonds. I found this really cool butterfly pendant that has a bunch of small diamonds. I also found a small ring that has diamonds in the shape of a cross. Obviously since I found them on playground parks I don't believe they are real - but how can I find out if they are real or not? >>



As others have said, 925 is sterling.

Most precious metal jewelry is stamped. However, there can be exceptions... one way is it is a piece that's been worn for years and the stamp has worn away. I heard someone who had a ring sized and the marking was removed as that was the section removed (but I think jewelers try to keep the stamp). Also, for chains, maybe the clasp breaks off and you're left with the chain, that probably won't be marked. Also, prior to roughly 1906 or so (not sure of exact year) U.S. jewelers did not have to mark their jewelry, so old stuff might not be marked. One old gold ring I found is marked "WXXX" and another has an anchor followed by "k".

Usually silver marks are "Sterling" and "925". I have a Mexican piece marked 950 but don't confuse that with Platinum which can have that mark I believe.

Gold can come as a karat marking such as 10k, 12k, 14k, 18k, etc. Some other countries have others like 8, 9, 15, 24. You can also see the purity percentage. For example, 10k can be marked at 417 or 4170. 14k can be 585, 18k is 750. You get to these numbers (or very close) by taking the karat and dividing by 24k (pure gold). So 10/24 = .416666666666.

Of course, not all markings mean it's real...there's plenty of fakes out there marked 14k, etc.

When you find a gold or silver colored ring, first check if there is any discoloration or flaking of the metal. Also check for any corrosion. These are signs that it might not be precious.

Whitetornado was good on how to show metal value. Just take weight and multiply by purity to get pure metal weight. Then you need to remember precious metals are measured in "troy" ounces, which is roughly 31.1 grams (not the roughly 28.8 for other things). So you would take your 2.775 grams of pure silver and divide by 31.1. and then multiple silver price per ounce (kitco or coinflation).

As far as diamonds go... I find pieces so infrequently that are worth testing, that I just go to a jeweler. There's a little machine they use to scratch the surface to know if they're diamonds. I've seen diamonds in gold, and some in silver, but if the piece isn't precious metal, the odds decrease substantially.

Hopefully this rambling made sense.

raiderguy10

That was a great post. Thank you so much

pcgs69

Also, don't use your detector indicator as proof an object is of a certain metal. I've has silver ring up as foil, and I've had it come up as a screamer signal that you knew it was something good! Same with gold, depending on the size, thickness and shape, the signal will vary significantly. I've had small gold sound like foil, and monster gold sound like a zincoln.

pcgs69

And one more...

Just because you see a "14k" you need to look closely what else is stamped.

usually 14KP is a good stamp. It stands for "plum" (plumb?) gold, meaning it's exact purity. Generally, I believe jewelers can just take a 13.5k gold item and round it up to 14k. The P means it's exactly 14k. But, of course there's confusion as many may think it stands for plated.

Also, there could be things like HGE. So if you see 14kHGE, it means heavy gold electroplate (or something like that). So it's essentially a junker!

There's also markings like 14k 1/20. From what I understand it means 5% of the ring's weight is 14k gold...so it's a thick plating.

ricko

Seems you are getting into MD'ing quite well.... you have good answers above. You can by a gem tester, but for now, just take possible gems to a jeweler. Most of the time, unless in gold or silver, they will not be worth anything. Best of luck, and remember, have fun....Cheers, RickO

demodigger

If you look on eBay, you can find diamond and gold testers. Our club has one.