Once again silver jewelry has made a comeback. It is too lustrous and glorious to keep aside and forget. Plus it is affordable and can be used on a daily basis. And the best part is, it is available at the comfort of one’s home, because of internet. A nice silver jewelry eshop on your PC can be looked for to order your favorite item which you will get at your doorsteps.
Sterling silver is considered to be the best amongst silver alloys for making jewelry. It is made of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals, normally copper. This is because fine silver made of 99.9% silver is too soft to be molded into jewelry items. Copper provides the necessary strength to silver, while maintaining its beauty and ductility. To improve the qualities of sterling alloy, various other metals too are used instead of copper. They reduce the casting porosity, increase resistance against tarnish and eliminate firescale. Major amongst these metals are zinc, germanium and platinum. Various other additives too, like boron and silicon are also added.
While purchasing silver jewelry online you should take care to purchase from reliable shops. See to it whether the shop offers 100% guarantee and how much is their turnover. Many good shops offer 100% money-back guarantee, because there can be problems with jewelry items like rings and bracelets that they may not fit the user. The money is returned without any hassle.
You can also look for different types of silver while choosing the jewelry.
Mexican Silver – This has 95% of silver and 5% of other metals and it is from Mexico. The other metal is usually copper.
Britannia Silver – This is purer than Mexican silver. It has at least 958.4 parts of silver per 1000 parts of alloy and maximum 41.6 parts of copper. This type of silver is marked in the UK.
German Silver – This is of varied types regarding composition. It has three metals, namely copper, nickel and zinc, percentage of which range from 50%-61.6%, 30%-21.1% and 19%-17.2% respectively. Thus it has very little or no silver.
Alpaca Silver – This too is fake silver. Usually its composition is of 60% copper, 20% zinc, 20% nickel and 5% tin. This alloy can cause skin irritation in those who have sensitive skin.
Silver Plate – This type of jewelry has plating of silver on it and contains no real silver. It is costume jewelry and generally is not hallmarked. You will have to be careful while buying this type, because some merchants charge very high price for it. No matter, how thick the plating is, it contains not more than 5% of real silver. In the course of time the plating comes off and then the item becomes unusable.
Silvertone – This is a silver-colored metal and is used for costume jewelry. It is made of variety of combinations of metals and so quality differs from item to item. This type of jewelry often tarnishes quickly; only if you are lucky, you can get a good piece, which won’t tarnish, break or irritate your skin.