How to fix a 925 ring that turned copper color ?

mike b

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925 ring.jpg CS RING.jpg copper ring.jpg

This is a ring I found yesterday, it was white/scratched and marked .925. My wife liked it so I tumbled it in stainless steel shot, when I took it out this morning it was perfectly and completely copper plated. I clean almost everything I find one way or another and have had this happen before when a stray penny gets mixed in with silver, but nothing as perfect as this. So I acid tested it just now and it is silver but even before I applied the acid I could see clean silver on the ring where I rubbed it on the stone. I thing there was copper filings in my tumbler, I've washed it so it doesn't happen again. Its not a collectors piece just a pretty ring, Any ideas how to get the copper coating off ?
 

CASPER-2

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i dont like the 925 stamp mark to well
could be a fake
try rubbing with baking soda and water - should shine it
if stays coppery then probably a knock off
 

SusanMN

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I have never had a .925 ring turn copper but there is copper under plated rings. Sometimes it may say “plated” very faintly next to the .925 though. I am pretty sure you have a fake marked or plated ring. Sorry, but you could try putting a buffing pad on a dremel and see if that will polish off the copper.
 

Gene Mean

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Beautiful ring anyway! In the pic you took of the 925 it looks like plating is worn off next to 925. Could be a reflection though. You can get it re-plated. It'll look like new.
It looks very solid, the metal, whatever it is, is in good shape. My wife says take it to a jeweler.
 

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Jason in Enid

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Looks like a fake ring. Never had a real silver ring look like copper after a cleaning. Take some baking soda and a few drops of water to make a paste, then scrub a part of the ring with the paste. If it doesnt turn back silver, consider it fake.
 

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It's a nice looking ring, hope it cleans-up. :occasion14:
 

Back-of-the-boat

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Try some silver polish.Might not work but it might.
 

FreeBirdTim

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I clean all my silver rings with Wright's brass polish. Might be worth a shot. It's a little harsher than silver polish, but it doesn't do any harm to silver.
 

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mike b

mike b

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i dont like the 925 stamp mark to well
could be a fake
try rubbing with baking soda and water - should shine it
if stays coppery then probably a knock off

If you've ever tumbled silver and a copper coin got mixed in the bunch the silver will come out with a copper tint. I realized later I had copper filings/dust in my tumbler from a copper chain I tumbled a few weeks earlier, and didn't clean the tumbler out afterwards . I just got around to it today but I dipped the ring in this rust remover and a second later it was 90% better. Five minutes later its bright again ! Also it acid tested silver.
silver ri.jpg silver r.jpg
 

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mike b

mike b

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Works ok on concrete great on silver ! But don't use it on anything you love.
 

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