Silver wedding rings and engagement rings - the cheaper alternative

Silver wedding rings - inexpensive but not cheap

Silver is a precious metal and a chemical element. Beside copper it is the second element that has given a country its name: Argentina (from the Latin name of silver: argentum). Cyprus is the other country that got its name from the Latin 'aes cyprum' - copper.

Silver occurs in a lot of areas, even in food but in our case, silver jewellery is the most interesting part.

Among the normal precious metals used in wedding or engagement rings (like e.g. gold, or platinum), silver is the cheapest. That doesn't mean it can't be and remain a wonderful wedding band though. It just means you have to put more effort in maintaining and restoring its original look.

Sterling Silver

Sterling silver is an alloy of 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals. Compared to pure silver it is harder and thus very suitable for jewelry production.

There are other silver compounds, like Britannian silver or Mexican silver. Here the pure silver amount is higher than in Sterling silver.

Silver and tarnish

The lower amount of pure silver, the bigger the problems with corrosion. Pure silver doesn't react with oxygen but as it isn't hard enough our jewellery doesn't consist of pure silver so the rings, earrings and other jewelry will turn black or dark bluish.

There are many products on the market to remove this and restore the grey and shiny metal look.

Silver care

If your ring is turning black, there are lots of products and tips to remove the black or bluish layer. You can buy special cloths to polish away the layer or there are also silver cleaning baths available on the market. Do this regularly and you will enjoy your engagement ring a long, long time.

By the way, if you have run out of silver cleaning agents it also really works to brush you ring with tomato sauce or tooth paste.

If you are not using your silver ring, store it in a sealed plastic bag or similar to avoid corrosion.