# Always test and verify



## niteliteone (Dec 8, 2011)

Tuesday I was offered a bag of new silver bracelets. Real nice intricate running brick chain pattern. They look like fine silver, a real bright white with a faint gold aura in reflected light. The bracelets weigh 12.2g each but I don’t find a hallmark that I know just a barely readable 915 in a circle.
I filed a deep notch and tested with silver test solution and got a slightly brownish but red result. OK positive for silver but no copper reaction. Good so far? :?: 

Then I tested with a magnet and my heart was broken when it stuck to the magnet.  So talking with my customer I found out he has taken this jewelry to every scrap buyer in town and all declined to buy it since it stuck to the magnet. He was sure it was silver as that is why he bought it. :shock: 

Sound like a typical story so far? 
Another scrap dealer getting scammed with fake jewelry? :idea: 

Well I was curious since they did test positive for silver so I bought 1200 grams (100 pieces) for $200 :shock: feeling I could sell them for $6 or $7 at the flea market or something.

I know a fools move on my part. But something told “me just do it”.
So when I get home I decide to further test (dissolve) a piece just to see what I got for my money.

I cut the soldered ends off and was left with a 10g chain which I put in 50/50 nitric. To validate the test I also took 10g of known sterling and dissolved it in a separate container.

The unknown chain immediately started turning the acid a green color that just kept getting darker as the piece dissolved. It took 15ml acid to completely dissolve this unknown metal. While the known sterling test was a nice blue as expected. It took 12mg to fully dissolve the sterling silver.

Next I filtered both solutions added a coil of copper to each container to recover any values present. I was surprised that the unknown solution started cementing much more vigorously than the sterling silver.

Well after filtering and rinsing each solution thoroughly and drying the cemented silver completely, my return on the sterling was 9g +/- .1 powder. And the unknown metal was also 9g +/- .1. 

Surprise, I sure was. Now I need to figure out how to get the remaining 45lbs from the guy.

I will post more pictures of the processing as I get it done.
Anode bars.
Silver cell.
Melt to finished bars.

Tom C.


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## Smack (Dec 8, 2011)

Hmm, that's interesting.


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## element47 (Dec 8, 2011)

Very interesting! To what do you attribute the magnetic attraction?


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## 4metals (Dec 8, 2011)

I've seen gold bracelets with steel wire inside, for support I assume, could it possibly be done with some types of silver bracelets as well?


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## metatp (Dec 8, 2011)

Couldn't it just be a layer of nickel? I've seen the same thing with some really shiny charms mark 925 or sterling.


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## niteliteone (Dec 9, 2011)

Nickel is what I was thinking too.

That could explain the slight magnetic attraction. The dark green color of the solution. and the 3ml extra nitric acid to disolve each 10g material.


Well I spent the day unsoldering the clasps and cliping off the soldered tips to process seperately since they are soldered and may contain lead. That changed the total weight from 12g to 10g per bracelet.

I dissolved 97 pieces as 3 batches in a total of 1010ml nitric and filtered the solution twice since it gave me some really nasty fine black powder in the filters. The solution is still dark green but is clear now. It got dark so I put it up for the night. Tomarrow I will cement the silver, filter and dry to get an accurate recovery weight.
Then it's time to make anode bars and start the rest of the process.

Goodnight for now.
Tom C.


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## turtlesteve (Dec 9, 2011)

I agree with your conclusion. I have found magnetic sterling & white gold on several occasions, always rhodium plated pieces that are thickly nickel plated under the rhodium. These pieces also give a false negative on an acid test if you use a tile or scratch stone, as the plating layer is too thick.

Steve


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