Why Does Silver Tarnish?

How do you keep silver clean and polished?

Silver is not attacked by air, but by your furnace-- coal and gas heating produces sulfuric acid which will attack the surface of your silver articles causing the metal to darken.

It's not just your silver, this happens to all silver, sterling and silver plate. In order to keep silver clean it should be stored properly stored in a dry place. Better yet, I would suggest using a pacific silver cloth (cloth impregnated with a chemical that prevents tarnishing).

How to Clean Silver and Silver Plate

All silver, whether sterling or silver plate, can be cleaned with any professional silver polish (not metal polish as it is too abrasive). Also never use Toothpaste for the same reason. Silver polish is readily available at most grocery Stores IE: Kroger, Albertsons, Publix etc. and in Jewelry Stores. Some of the brand names for silver polish are Hagerty, Wrights, Goddards, Weiman,Seige Etc.

Where Do You Find Silver Markings?

Marking of silver items both for sterling silver and silver- plate beginning in  the 1860's in the United states were were usually found on the bottom or base of the article. 

Sterling silver and silver plate markings usually contain trademarks, stock numbers, pattern numbers etc, but they can also contain information about the purity of the silver.  The United States Government Stamping Act of 1906 assured the  the quality of the item to be sterling silver or 925/1000 pure by marking the item"STERLING". 

Sterling silver is 92 1/2" percent  FINE SILVER with 75/1000 of added metal.  Copper is the typical other metal and is used to give the manufactured item strength and durability.

Markings for Silver Plated Articles

Silver-Plate is typically done by Electrolysis, the conduction of an electric current by electrolyte of charged particles, or sometimes you can see on the silver plated item the word Electroplate.  This word is defined as  articles consisting of base metals coated with a thin layer or silver by the process of Electrolysis.

There are many examples of marking silver plate some easy to figure out and some very misleading.

Examples of the following marks are all silver plate or a mixed metal Containing NO SILVER.

Alaska Silver, Britannia, EPC, E.P.N.S., German Silver,Nickel Silver, N.S., R.P.Sheffield Plate are the most commonly found.

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