Yes and no…lol So yes the copper (and amounts of other lesser components elements) content does play with the color of a true alloy of whatever grade silver. With silver there are some main categories: 999 Fine(no additions and doesnt typically tarnish but if it does you can just wipe it off and its softer than sterling), .925 Sterling(92.5%.999 plus 7.5%copper)
and last Argentium Silver which doesnt tarnish and has different working properties than fine or sterling because the main additive ingredient in the alloy besides Fine silver .999 is Germanium which prevents it from tarnishing! Gold tones/alloys are the same. On the other hand though dont be fooled by a really nice grade of plating over base metals. Like gold filled and silver filled which are thicker than plating and they wear off at different rates giving things uneven wear and uneven tones. The proper way to test for these in general is slightly destructive with a scratch plate and acids specific to metal alloys and grades. Different alloys scratch different colors and or react differently with their comparable acids. Then you have the different surface plate treatments on older jewelry like Rhodium plating. This last one is visually different right off the bat to the trained eye and you can couple that with the design elements of the piece such as type of stone/rhinestone/paste stone/marcasite/cut steel/plastics/glass/crystal/etc… Rhodium is used on pot metal bases mostly…think vintage jewelry like shoe clips/fur clips and silver bases in finer vintage jewelry… Its even used in some more modern design but rarely. So with gold, the color is dependent on the alloy…think rose gold=more copper or Black Hills gold which is a bunch of components made with varied gold alloys. Then finally you also have to wonder if what you have is Nickle/Nickle Silver. Nickle silver is not silver at all but is a high grade Nickle used in jewelry. There are a lot of clues to sleuth out your material before you would end up doing a scratch test that can damage a piece…such as weight, style, tarnishing and color or pattern of tarnish, researching maker material choices specific to their work, Hallmarking, color…etc… This is definitely not an exhaustive explanation but it will give you a lot of angles to look into to start building your eye for the materials your pieces are made of. Hope this helps clarify some of the questions!
~Koliopee
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