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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;MrNate, post: 4405961, member: 5515&quot;]Hi [USER=237]@Happy![/USER] </p><p><br /></p><p>Great question, I&#039;ll do my absolute best to answer it as you continue to refine your eye for good purchases:</p><p><br /></p><p>#1: Smell: I have heard this as an indicator for real silver, but I personally haven&#039;t found validity to this claim, or my nose isn&#039;t attuned enough to tell the difference. In general, I would say that the smell of an item would not typically be a reliable indicator. </p><p><br /></p><p>#2: Form of the piece: The positive thing that I see with your piece to suggest that it could <u>potentially</u> be real silver is the way the napkin ring band is formed to add some structural integrity. This isn&#039;t very conclusive, but one sign there&#039;s potential. You see, since silver is a relatively pliable metal, a maker would consider forming the piece with a rounded band to add strength to the piece.</p><p><br /></p><p>#3: Tone: the outside of the piece is a bit inconclusive to me....It would lead me to probably rule out electro-plated brass or copper, but nickel silver is still very much a possibility. I see slight tone variations where the piece was engraved that are usually present with plated nickel pieces. I would also hope to see the crevices of the piece to be dark, and the upper relief of the metal to be shiny/light. It appears at face value that the opposite is occurring, suggesting that the base metal is not tarnishing in the method I would expect for silver.</p><p><br /></p><p>#4: Inside of band: the tone of the inside of the band to me suggests some of the same observations noted in #3 above. I will say that the tone of the inside of the band looks good, but given the observation I made in #3 above, I would personally say it&#039;s a 75% chance this would be Nickel Silver, and a 25% chance this item would be 800, 900, or 925 silver.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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