Can't clean this silver necklace, is it really silver?

[DyslexicPoster]

I bought this sterling necklace of easy. I worn some suncream one day and it turned black. I have since put it in a pandora silver cleaner kit and used a silver cloth, put with tin foil and washing detergent, cleaned with vinegar. It's still quite tarnished. I'm thinking it can't be silver at all? It's starting to look coppery where it did clean up maybe?

Is it definitely silver and not silver plated??

Fwiw I have never found those cleaning things any good. What will work on silver is toothpaste, not the gel kind and a very soft brush. Buff/brush the toothpaste in with the brush and rinse in warm water, if silver will come up sparkling

silver tarnish with chemicals. A jeweller can probably bring it back up. Is it hallmarked sayin 925?

Is it hallmarked?

I've not heard of using foil and detergent, I thought it was foil, boiling water and baking soda?! I've used that on silver plated cutlery and it worked well - doesn't take off the plating like rubbing with a silver cleaning cloth can.

Yes it's hallmarked

I've cleaned up silver items with Brasso and Silvo, both products brought the items up to be clearly silver. I don't think your item is solid silver, sorry. Is there a hallmark on the clasp? There should be...

It's stamped but it's not very clear. It looks like a hallmark to the naked eye but I'm not sure on closer inspection

Line a small bowl with foil, shiny side up, add a teaspoon of bicarb, put jewellery in, add boiling water, it will fizz and froth up so not too much. Once it's stopped fizzing, take jewellery out and give it a rinse in soapy water. Works every time for me

It should be silver if it's 925 -
https://aquilajewellery.com/blogs/our-boho-journal/what-is-sterling-silver-and-what-does-925-on-silver-mean

Silver dip

Get yourself some Silvo and an old rag. It should come up nicely.

Do you think it's faked? From what you've said so far, it does look that way doesn't it... you've cleaned it using methods that should have worked on sterling silver, it's looking a bit coppery in places, the hallmark is a bit fudged-looking.

I wouldn't be confident in its being genuine, sorry.

Yes I think it's fake honestly. I won't clean up when my victorian unhalmarked ring comes up just from vodka. I do think the black are going copperish, interesting you see it too. I think I have silver polish somewhere. It's a 30" chain and my mums wedding ring is on it. I don't feel it's going to keep her ring safe. I will try some more timings, see if its plated and comes off

Another vote for toothpaste and also store in tissue paper. I was told this in Bali when I bought a silver necklace.

It's been cleaned again with silver polish and bicarb. Next to to chain I'm certain is silver

It does look very coppery in that last photo.

It may well be that the stamped link IS 925 sterling silver, but the snake chain itself is not.

It looks fake. It's should have come up much better than that by now.

That’s definitely not silver.

I'm pretty sure it's fake too. I don't trust it to hold mums ring. I'm going to bin it to be safe

I don’t think that’s Sterling silver it wouldn’t look like that if it was unfortunately you can get fake silver jewellery on selling sites it’s easy for them to put a 925 stamp on it when it’s just plated. Sorry OP looks like you’ve been sold a fake necklace.

Unfortunately just because something has a 925 mark on it doesn't mean it's silver. A 925 mark on its own means nothing and isn't the same as a hallmark. I could stamp 925 on my TV but it wouldn't mean it's made from silver.

Having said that - the use of bicarb and silver foil results in a chemical reaction. If you leave it in too long the reaction reverses and the piece can end up attracting the tarnish and looking worse than before - which yours does.

With chains with lots of nooks and crannies like the snake chain, I'd use silver dip - very very very quick dip in and straight back out into soapy water; then clean with baby soft toothbrush, finish with good rinse in clean water and dry.

Not sure whether you bought it from Ebay or Etsy - either way if it was recently then i'd complain and see what they say.

I did the silver dip first. Its a Pandora one and I followed the instructions. The last method was a H Samuel silver foam..so it was the bicarb tarnishing it the the form should have removed that. I bought it too long ago to complain. It was a few months ago now.

I would still message the seller even though it was a while ago.

The seller has said most expensive silver jewellery is rhodium plated and these aren't. So once they are tarnished it can never be cleaned up again unlike rhodium. Sounds like BS to me. That's why people clean their family silver. Under the tarnish is just more silver. So even if you sandpaper the tarnish off, silver is silver and you'd find more of underneath. It wasn't expensive but it's the last time I buy 'real' new jewellery from a non high street name. I could have lost my mums rings on that chain

You're right OP, that's utter BS.

As you say, sold silver is turtles silver all the way down. You could cut it in half and it would be silver in the middle. Rub it with polish, the top layer gets removed, silver underneath. Silver tarnish is dark/black, not orange, for a start.

Rhodium doesn't tarnish - that's the point of it. So there's no 'cleaning up' involved. It just wears off a bit and has to be redone. I've a white gold ring that's rhodium plated, it just shows a bit yellowy where the plating has worn off in places, the rest is as shiny and silver as the day I got it 10 years ago. Never cleaned, except run under the tap.

I'd be annoyed enough about them trying to double down at ripping you off at this point that I'd consider reporting them to whoever you report hallmark fraud to. There must be some department or organisation who takes it seriously, otherwise hallmarks would be pointless. And now you've got it in writing from them that they're still trying to pass it off as real silver. Completely understand if you're not as print to righteous anger as me though! 😂

Does it have any marks other than the 925?

(edited for fat finger typos)

No just the 925 stamp which doesn't look very crisp either. Like it was stamped then plated