I get what you’re all saying. These stones have a hand polished look to them and I like that. Just imagining what they would look like with high polish 
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Stone polish? No no no! There is no such thing as polish for turquoise, or other porous stones. It would absolutely ruin the stone. You can clean and polish hard stones like diamonds and emeralds, but the most you would want to do to turquoise is rub it with a dry cloth (and not a silver cleaning cloth impregnated with anything.)
Polishing the silver is a matter of personal preference, and if you were keeping the necklace and wanted to wear it polished that would be up to you. But as chicfarmer said, most people buying an older necklace want it to have that natural patina of age on it. It would be very out of place and incongruous to have an old piece with shiny, new-looking silver. And that patina takes many years to develop, and once you shine it up, it’s gone. So you would be scaring away most of your potential buyers.
Beautiful necklace by the way! Congrats on your purchase.
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This is very well explained. Speaking as a newbie myself – thank you!
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While researching further, I met Vitoria Z Harriman. She shared with me the following information and gave permission to share online. Very interesting about some of the traders, the morenci mine, and happenings of that area and time.
Vitoria… “More than likely if the necklace belonged to Mr. John, the stones are from Morenci. There were two Navajo families who used to trade/sell their works in our area as many of the silversmith miners who came across turquoise in the mine. From what I remember, their marks were quite unique and back in the days, 925 silver stamp wasn’t a thing, it was who the artist was. The Craigs and Nofchissey’s were amazing artists and known for their jewelry pieces and squash blossoms. FYI…there are still Old timers who have their stashes of natural and stabilized Morenci Turquoise, who may one day part with their stones.”
Me… “Thank you for the wonderful information. Mr McLaughlin’s name was John. Could you give a time line for when Mr John was trading with the families?”
Victoria… “I am not sure when John was trading with the families, but from what I know, a large vein of turquoise was discovered in the early 60’s. He worked for the company about that time. Of course, turquoise may have been discovered when PD began open pit mining after 1937 and don’t know if it was discovered during underground mining era. By the mid-seventies, it became a firing offense to possess turquoise when your shift was over. The last time I saw the families was before the big flood hit Clifton and destroyed their homes in 1983. Hope this helps.”
Me… “How interesting. Thank you for passing this on. You have a good night! Oh, may I please share your info online?”
Victoria… “Yes you can.”
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