Sterling silver question (.925)
Q.In 1998 I got a ring at a small gift shop at the mall called "Fire and Ice" as a gift from my mom (not sure if any of you have heard of it, but I think it closed down). Anyways, it's a sterling silver (has a .925 engraved inside the band) oval peridot split shank band ring. It's awesome and I have been wearing it all the time.. everyday, night and day, since I got it. It hasn't discolored or rusted at all, but the band has sorta of bent on the side, where it meets my other finger. This happened after about 2-3 years or so. It was pretty noticeable and made the ring feel weird on my finger. Anyways, a friend of mine used some plyers on it to try and straighten it out. And it worked okay. But my friend said it bended back into shape a little too easily and scratched up pretty easily from the plyers, and suggested that perhaps the ring was made up of a very cheap, soft kind of silver, or metal. Even before that, it's gotten easily scratched up over the years, and I don't do any rugged work with my hands at all. So, my question is.. it was said when we bought it, that it was just "sterling silver" and it does indeed have the sterling silver marker for .925. Is this normal for sterling silver? Could have using the plyers made the band weaker, and later on cause a problem? It cost about $45.00, if I recall clearly. I do not know anything about silver really. Or the different types of silver and strengths, etc. Isn't a .925 rated ring really good quality silver? (then again, any store could probably engrave their jewelry with that, and it not even be silver..)
A.When looking at the ring on the outside, it's a shiney silver. However, inside the split shank opening, there are areas that are not shiney and polished, but show a more gritty kind of rougher material. I'm not sure if the outside of the ring has been polished with some permanent silver polish or something (if that's even possible).. I can't explain it unless you saw it. Any idea what kind of silver this is? Is sterling a typically strong metal? Well, strong as in, where it won't snap or break on me? I'm not worried about it scratching up or bending.. as long as it won't ever break on me, from just everyday wear, without rugged hand usage. Also, if let's say they did mess up on the other alloy metals to add to the silver (by adding a weaker metal to the silver).. and the ring has lasted this long to begin with, what are the chances that the ring could completely break on me, just with casual everyday wear? (If I donīt do any rugged work with my hands or anything like that.) The stone seems to be okay. Like I said, I don't do much rugged work with my hands nor do I get my hands in anything that might cause any damage to the stone. It's not a very big stone though and it's embedded into the frame really well. So only the upper part of it is exposed. It does have a few scratches that only I can notice in good lighting, from which I expected, by the way I handle it. Not that many scratches and they aren't that bad. I assume this is a real, authentic peridot. It's got a little piece of what looks to be a piece of sand or dirt inside the gem. It doesn't really look like oen of those fake ones.
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