Copper, Brass, Tarnished Silver? Oh my!

:thinking: any opinions on metal? Marked DJN
Not magnetic

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These look to be silver but you can get a test kit on EBay or Etsy very reasonably and test to be sure.

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Could silver turn so brassy? I tried boiled water, aluminum foil & baking soda experiment.:flushed:
Stayed the same colour.

I should invest in a kit…

Here’s a better pic

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It’s really hard to tell. Your first images look like silver. The last one looks like brass.

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Research Devon J Nelson. I have a couple of pieces by him that are also chip inlay. If you search him here on the forum, you should pull up some information. There was another person who had a fairly large collection of his work.

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Agree. Likely Delvin J. Nelson who worked in chip inlay and was fairly prolific.

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When I look at his work it is all silver none of this brassy color. Im wondering if silver can tarnish to this color.
I think it’s time for a test kit! :slight_smile:

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The brassy color is not really showing up in your photos to me. I bet if you polished it up you might find that it looks like sterling.

Thanks for spelling his name correctly. I was on coffee cup number one. LOL

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Did he work in gold? Generally would be marked, but you never know. Go to your local coin shop and ask how much they would charge to test it but only if they can do a non-destructive test ie: no filing or acid.

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The only examples of his work that I came across were silver.
Gold crossed my mind as well but I figured such a hefty piece would’ve been marked? But I agree with you- you never know!

I tried everything to polish it up thinking that it was silver that was just badly tarnished.

Here on the southeast coast I have seen silver tarnish that brassy color. I actually had someone give me several strands of NA beads because she thought they weren’t silver. A little time with a polishing cloth did the trick and one strand I wear a lot because it’s the perfect length. :blush:

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ok…probably make you cringe,but…toothpaste.

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I did try toothpaste
And … ketchup! :rofl:

Silver can tarnish to a brassy color but on closer examination it doesn’t look like silver. Honestly needs to be tested with nitric acid (which probably isn’t in your medicine chest or cupboard).

Could be old 1-1/20th gold filled (really just mostly brass), or just plain brass

I wouldn’t spend too much time on this piece. It’s handmade, but an inexpensive production piece made en masse using inexpensive crushed chip inlay. Back in the day, a bracelet like that one would job for less than $10 if base metal, and around $10-12 if sterling. If it’s worth anything now, it would be more or less the scrap value of the silver (if any).

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Thanks for the info, I ended up selling it. I’m relieved to know that it probably wasn’t gold because I sold it for cheap. I don’t like selling my jewelry, I tend to hoard lol
but this one was driving me nuts. :woozy_face:

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Okay, don’t think I crazy but a simple test for sterling silver of better is the taste test. Pop it in your mouth. Pure silver to .925 doesn’t have a taste. that’s why they can use it for fillings in teeth. lower grades of silver will have a copper penny taste. Even if you have a piece that is plated to a normal thickness the copper passes through the plate at the ionic level. Remember Sterling can be made with other metals, the only thing that makes it sterling is the .925 amount of pure silver. In my shop I have a bunch of sterling rings I bought on ebay. they test out as sterling but turn gold at the first chance they get. I have decided to stop cleaning them and embrace the gold tone! Kyle

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Since we are talking metal weirdness here…I’ll just add the fact that white gold has a tendency to tarnish that slightly off yellow but mostly silvery white gold color that screws with your eyes making you think maybe its brass…the only way to know for sure is to test it unfortunately
~Koliopee

I’ve always wondered if the brassy color comes from copper mixed in with the silver. Since the silver is .925, could the remaining metal be copper giving it that brassy glow??? I have a lot of pieces marked sterling that are older and appear lightly brassy in color despite being marked. Just curious about that.