If you are here, it is a good bet that you are trying to make a decision if you should buy silver or platinum jewelry. This is impartial information intended purely to inform you about the advantages and disadvantages for each material.
Silver Jewelry
It is important to note that silver jewelry is not really 100% pure silver, but is really 92.5% silver, with other substances making up the remaining 7.5%. This is due to the fact that silver is quite a soft metal, and also pure silver jewelry is usually too soft to wear. It’s likely you have seen jewelry shops promoting “925 silver”, which references the 92.5% that we’ve just talked about.
One of the benefits of silver jewelry is that it is pretty affordable. Silver as a general metal is (right now) worth around $38USD per oz, whereas gold for example is trading around $1663USD per ounce. This shows just how affordable silver actually is. The advantage this particularly provides is definitely the potential for a much larger pool of designers throughout the world to produce unique pieces of jewelry that they might not have the ability to offer with a more costly metal. Silver, being soft, is also very flexible, resulting in more possibilities in design as well. A beautiful piece of jewelry you’ve seen in silver, may not be feasible to produce in other materials.
A few of the disadvantages of 925 silver are not as a result of silver itself, but rather the other materials that make up the 7.5%. Copper is the main additive that is utilized to bolster the silver, and it has the regrettable effect of tarnishing the jewelry. It’s the copper which means that 925 silver jewelry will respond to not just salt water, swimming pool water, and sweat, but even oxygen. That is why tarnishing is inevitable for 925 silver jewelry.
Furthermore, silver jewelry also contains nickel. Nickel can trigger skin reactions to 15% of the female population (and increasing) and is becoming a serious problem. Jewelry containing nickel isn’t necessarily a major problem in itself, because it depends more on how fast the metal that contains it releases the nickel into a person’s blood stream. Silver jewelry unfortunately isn’t particularly hypoallergenic, and people with very sensitive skin can react to it.
Platinum Jewelry
Platinum is among the rarest metals on the planet, and it is in truth 35 times more rare when compared with gold. This alone makes this a valuable metal, and it requires around 10 tons of ore simply to produce a single ounce of platinum. This is one reason why it’s extremely expensive. The price of platinum will vary wildly when compared to other metals, and can range from being a bit cheaper than gold, to two times as expensive.
Platinum is a darker color than silver, and both the metals can become dull as time passes. Platinum is also stronger and more scratch resistant than silver, however it is not scratch proof in any way. Platinum features a unique ability in that it won’t tend to wear down or lose mass like silver and gold. A scratch on a platinum ring is actually a displacement of the material, while when a gold or silver ring scratches, metal is generally lost to whatever created the scratch. Consequently while you may choose to polish your platinum ring on occasion, you won’t have to replace it like you may need to with a silver or gold ring.
Platinum jewelry also carries a high oxidation resistance, and also won’t tarnish as much as a silver ring. Most platinum jewelry is 90-95% platinum.
So which metal (silver or platinum) is best for you? Only you are able to ascertain that. You should consider your budget, your way of life, and what appeals to you the most. Never ever let anybody else push you into spending much or too little because of what they are promoting!