Need information on Conchos

[Curbstrap2]

Hi Folks!

I have a saddle from the late 60's/early 70's with beautiful silver peso conchos similar to these but mine all are the eagle on the far right and dated from 1951 thru 1959.

Now my question is how can you tell if the are real silver or a composite material. I held a magnet up to them and they repelled it. What to you all think? Thanks for any insight.

[pella]

they repelled the magnet?! pure silver is not magnetic and it quite soft

[Curbstrap2]

they repelled the magnet?! pure silver is not magnetic and it quite soft

Right! My goal was to be sure they were not a inferior metal based composit.

[whinewine]

Hi Folks!

I have a saddle from the late 60's/early 70's with beautiful silver peso conchos similar to these but mine all are the eagle on the far right and dated from 1951 thru 1959.

Now my question is how can you tell if the are real silver or a composite material. I held a magnet up to them and they repelled it. What to you all think? Thanks for any insight.

What Pella was saying is that if the metal repelled a magnet, it was not silver, which is NOT magnetic and would NOT REPEL a magnet, so if it pushed the magnet away (repelled it), it had to be some sort of high nickle content/iron/steel/magnetic based metal.

If you mean that the magnet wasn't attracted to it, then you're back to square 1- a non magnetic metal like zinc or silver or copper or gold or white metal (etc, etc) will not attract a magnet... if you can remove one, a jeweler could simply test it, quickly & easily. Or you could make it difficult & buy a test kit online & try to test it yourself.

In all probability, though, I'd say they are either silver alloy, but perhaps could be a copper/nickle alloy (less likely). Silver was cheap during the '60s & the US only stopped making 90% silver coins for circulation in the late '60s ('67?...'68?). Sterling silver (both as finished pieces & as components for jewelry making) was also cheap throughout the '70 until the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market in the 1980s. Mexican silver coins remained relatively inexpensive until people, who had disdained them as somehow 'inferior' to US coins, finally realized that silver is silver, whether or not it is .925 pure, or 90% or 85% or 40% silver.

[Curbstrap2]

What Pella was saying is that if the metal repelled a magnet, it was not silver, which is NOT magnetic and would NOT REPEL a magnet, so if it pushed the magnet away (repelled it), it had to be some sort of high nickle content/iron/steel/magnetic based metal.

If you mean that the magnet wasn't attracted to it, then you're back to square 1- a non magnetic metal like zinc or silver or copper or gold or white metal (etc, etc) will not attract a magnet... if you can remove one, a jeweler could simply test it, quickly & easily. Or you could make it difficult & buy a test kit online & try to test it yourself.

In all probability, though, I'd say they are either silver alloy, but perhaps could be a copper/nickle alloy (less likely). Silver was cheap during the '60s & the US only stopped making 90% silver coins for circulation in the late '60s ('67?...'68?). Sterling silver (both as finished pieces & as components for jewelry making) was also cheap throughout the '70 until the Hunt brothers tried to corner the silver market in the 1980s. Mexican silver coins remained relatively inexpensive until people, who had disdained them as somehow 'inferior' to US coins, finally realized that silver is silver, whether or not it is .925 pure, or 90% or 85% or 40% silver.

Thanks that is good information!