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Sterling Silver Jewelry Holds Up To Value
By Charles Wilkinson

Sterling silver is a great metal for use in jewelry making due to its brilliant color and soft, malleable texture and is considerably less expensive than gold. At 92.5 percent pure silver, sterling silver jewelry can hold its value and be used with a variety of gemstones in a variety of settings.

Many times people believe that in order to be valuable, sterling silver jewelry has to be 99 percent pure. They are finding that jewelry made with almost pure silver has similar scarring issues as 24 carat gold in that the metal is so soft it can be easily scratched or otherwise damaged, ruining its appeal.

Silver is often alloyed with nickel or other white metals such as titanium or platinum to enhance its strength while not diminishing its brilliant white color. Although the industry standard for sterling silver is 925 parts silver and 75 parts copper. The intricacies of sterling silver jewelry often contains finer detail than that of other metals, including gold, and many different colors of stones can be installed in sterling silver jewelry settings.

When Buying Silver Be Sure Of Markings

Most fine sterling silver jewelry will be marked as to the silver content somewhere on the piece, usually in a spot not normally viewed, and making sure it is made with sterling silver can help you better judge its value. While silver is much more plentiful than gold it is still soft and easily damaged in its pure form and needs to be alloyed. If there are no markings on fine jewelry, it is possible the alloy consists of less that 92.5 percent silver.

Silver is affected by the sulfur in the air and will tarnish quickly and needs cleaned often. Usually a good cleaning with a special silver cleaner or polish will restore the natural luster to sterling silver jewelry but frequent cleaning will be needed to help it retain its shine. If left uncleaned silver has a tendency to develop a black surface coating of black.

Silver prices, like many precious metals fluctuate often, not only by supply and demand. Investing in silver can be a tricky business, best left to those with experience in metal commodities. However, sterling silver jewelry can always be a good investment, as the price of jewelry will usually improve regardless of the price fluctuations of the base metal of which it is made.

Author Details:
Charles Wilkinson writes about Jewelry, watches etc. for a small selection of web sites such as The A to Z of.com.

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