Some little tips for identifying antique-style gold and silver artifacts?

　　 Antique-style silver and goldware Today, it’s widely loved by the public. Its color is notably bright and white, making it look exceptionally clean and elegant when worn. Plus, it looks great whether you display it at home or not. However, these days there are so many counterfeit products on the market that we absolutely must learn how to quickly distinguish between genuine and fake items. Today, our editor will share some basic knowledge about imitation antique gold and silver pieces—let’s take a look!

　　There are quite a variety of types of antique-style gold and silver artifacts, so when purchasing them, it’s important to clearly define your own needs and make a well-informed choice. Given the prevalence of counterfeit items, it’s also crucial to learn some effective methods for identifying genuine pieces. Generally speaking, when buying antique-style gold and silver artifacts, the first thing to look for is that the higher the purity, the whiter the silver will appear, with a fine, even surface that has a lustrous sheen. Another method involves scratching the piece against a white wall: if the scratch leaves a mark similar to that made by a pencil, then it’s likely genuine silver. Both of these methods are indeed effective and reliable ways to verify authenticity. In addition, when selecting antique-style gold and silver artifacts, you can also try dropping the item onto the ground—if it makes a dull, muffled sound with no noticeable resonance or bounce, and the sound is a soft “puda, puda,” then it’s probably genuine silver. Currently, science can produce silver with a purity of 99.999% or higher; therefore, pure silver is typically reserved as a strategic asset in national treasuries. Under such circumstances, its fineness should generally not fall below 99.6%. Silver with a fineness between 99% and 99.6%, on the other hand, is referred to as “full silver.”

　　Before purchasing antique-style silver and gold jewelry, you should also understand what “colored silver” actually is. In fact, colored silver—also known as ordinary jewelry silver or secondary silver—is pure silver or fine silver to which a small amount of other metals has been added. Typically, the metal added is copper, which shares similar physical and chemical properties with silver. Although some people do use it, many are still not very familiar with these key points. Now that I’ve explained it here, you’ll have a clear understanding. This is because antique-style silver and gold jewelry often uses colored silver, which has a relatively hard texture. Colored silver is both tough and retains the malleability characteristic of pure silver. As a result, it naturally reduces the oxidation of silver by air, making the surface color of antique-style jewelry less likely to change compared to that of pure silver or fine silver. In China, the fineness of colored silver is expressed as a percentage. According to our research, overseas standards generally use parts per thousand to indicate fineness—for example, China’s “80 silver” and the foreign standard “800S” (where “S” stands for Silver) both signify a silver fineness of 80%.