Tiffany & Co.....Real or Fake???

trdhrdr007

Bronze Member
Nov 1, 2009
1,427
1,332
Picked this up this morning & am wondering about authenticity. The sale I got it from had some higher end stuff & some junk. I did a quick eBay check at the sale & it looks like there was one that was listed twice at $299 without selling. It was pretty dark in the house & now that I'm home I'm not extremely happy with the color of the tarnish. My silver acid is too old to reliably indicate silver. What do y'all think?

012.JPG 013_1.JPG 014.JPG 016.JPG
 

Beachkid23

Silver Member
Oct 26, 2013
4,917
4,883
fort myers fl
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I had some Tiffany stuff and it did not test for silver even though it's marked Sterling. The acid test is probably your best way to go unless you actually take it to a Tiffany dealer. Of course if you take it to the dealer they will be able to clean it up for you as well.
 

mojjax

Silver Member
Feb 27, 2005
4,563
4,090
MAINE
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
4
Detector(s) used
Ace 250
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Looks good to me !
 

diggummup

Gold Member
Jul 15, 2004
17,815
10,120
Somewhere in the woods
Detector(s) used
Whites M6
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The marks look good and match several others I looked at online.. Do you have any 18k solution? You can use it to test silver also. I think your fine though. I did notice that of the 4 that I saw yours is the only one that still has the stopper ball still so that $299 might not be unrealistic since yours is complete and you have the box. Speaking of, what are those speckled marks on it? Will they wipe off?

BTW- You can clean the tarnish off. No big deal. I would before I listed it anyway.
 

Last edited:
OP
OP
T

trdhrdr007

Bronze Member
Nov 1, 2009
1,427
1,332
The marks look good and match several others I looked at online.. Do you have any 18k solution? You can use it to test silver also. I think your fine though. I did notice that of the 4 that I saw yours is the only one that still has the stopper ball still so that $299 might not be unrealistic since yours is complete and you have the box. Speaking of, what are those speckled marks on it? Will they wipe off?

BTW- You can clean the tarnish off. No big deal. I would before I listed it anyway.

I don't have any gold test acid because I use an electronic tester. The box is in the basement but being in Alabama I'm pretty sure the spots are humidity related. No idea if they will wipe off. Will check next time I'm down there. I've been dealing in PM's for several years now & have come to associate any tarnish with a blue tint as being most likely plated. This piece isn't a full blue but it does have a faint hint of blue to it which always sets off alarm bells for me.

I've looked at the pics of the other ones online & am relatively sure it's the same one being marketed in different places. Would think if this was a fake there would be more of them out there. I've also heard Tiffany is pretty aggressive about pulling fakes from eBay & they didn't pull the one that looks identical to mine.
 

Drmad7

Hero Member
Apr 26, 2014
995
1,276
Midwest
Primary Interest:
Other
I've sold only one Tiffayt piece that I did not think was real(and stated so in the auction) and have only been contacted by folks who used to work for Tiffany and they wanted me to pull the auction. I usually take my pieces to the local Tiffany and have them clean it for authentication purposes since they will not clean a piece that they don't think is real. Your piece looks pretty good. Look at the underside of the Tiffany box. Is it very well made or a bit questionable? That is another good indicator of it being real. I have a nice Sterling "Tiffany" bracelet wih box that I bought my wife from Goodwill. The box was nice until you looked at the underside and it looked "off". The bracelet was very well made to the point that the Tiffany person was going to clean it for me until I kept asking "Are you sure you can clean it? I've never seen that particular year on bracelets like that?!". She then went into the database and made some comparisons and concluded hat it was indeed a very nice silver bracelet, but she could not clean it. Hence it became a gift for the wife who didn't care that it was Tiffany...it was shiny. Your piece looks very nice! I assume you got it a a good price!
 

OP
OP
T

trdhrdr007

Bronze Member
Nov 1, 2009
1,427
1,332
In general I don't like to even pay melt. In this case I paid more but think it was cheap enough to make some money.
 

jerseyben

Gold Member
Nov 18, 2010
5,165
2,176
NJ Pine Barrens
Detector(s) used
T2 SE
Primary Interest:
Other
I have purchased dozens of Tiffany items. When determining if the item is genuine, you have to look at several things and in context, they will indicate "real or fake".

Consider: Situation of seller, item's use and condition, anything out of place, original box/paperwork, color of tarnish, quality of the piece, unusual wear, unsoldered links, over use of hallmarks... The list goes on.

Obviously, if you have access to Internet when buying you can easily look up the item and see what a genuine piece looks like. Some pieces appear to be fantasy pieces that were never genuine in the first place. I recently bought a high quality ring that was stamped Tiffany, yet did not match their traditional style. When I bought it, I had my doubts but for the LOW price I paid, I was willing to take my chances. Sure enough, when I looked up the item later, I couldn't find a genuine example anywhere. There it was, for sale in bulk on that "Ali" website.
 

JimDon

Silver Member
May 6, 2009
4,040
5,277
NC USA
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
5
Detector(s) used
Minelab Etrac, Minelab Excalibur, White's MXT
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
If someone's going to counterfeit something from Tiffany. I doubt it would be this. It is real in my book
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Discussions

Top