What can I buy to test if something is Silver?

swingaloo

I have been left a lot of costume jewellery and amongst it are 50+ brooches plus hat pins and earrings. There are a few I want to keep but the rest Im happy to sell. 
I know very little of how to check for different precious stones, silver and what stone is real or paste. A lot of the brooches have lovely stones in them.

Looking on Ebay people are listing (and selling) lots that look like mine and a lot are listed at £10 upwards for just one. I was going to do a job lot till I researched a bit more. Ive checked the sold items as well on Ebay and they seem to sell quite well.
I dont think there is anything of particular high value but would like to check before I list them all.

I looked on amazon at the various things you can buy to check for silver and checking what stones are what but there are so many claiming to be accurate and they range from under a tenner to a lot of money.

Does anyone have something that will check silver and stones that they could recommend I buy?

Im aware I could go to the jewellers but I have twice gone to the local jeweller and been told something is worth X amount then been told by another that its worth half or doble what the other said so Im wary.

MattMattMattUK

swingaloo said:

I have been left a lot of costume jewellery and amongst it are 50+ brooches plus hat pins and earrings. There are a few I want to keep but the rest Im happy to sell. 
I know very little of how to check for different precious stones, silver and what stone is real or paste. A lot of the brooches have lovely stones in them.

Looking on Ebay people are listing (and selling) lots that look like mine and a lot are listed at £10 upwards for just one. I was going to do a job lot till I researched a bit more. Ive checked the sold items as well on Ebay and they seem to sell quite well.
I dont think there is anything of particular high value but would like to check before I list them all.

I looked on amazon at the various things you can buy to check for silver and checking what stones are what but there are so many claiming to be accurate and they range from under a tenner to a lot of money.

Does anyone have something that will check silver and stones that they could recommend I buy?

Im aware I could go to the jewellers but I have twice gone to the local jeweller and been told something is worth X amount then been told by another that its worth half or doble what the other said so Im wary.

The first thing to do is to look for hallmarks, anything solid silver will be hallmarked, if not then it is almost certainly silver plated. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_hallmarks

For the stones you need to try and identify what you think they are, then look at them through a jewellers loupe / high magnification magnifying glass, it is pretty easy to tell coloured glass from gemstone and you can to a certain extent grade stones if you read up on what you are looking for. 

Brie

simple first test I'd do is see if it's magnetic.  lots of stuff in costume jewellery can be picked up with a magnet.  But as I recall silver cannot.  Likewise gold.

Grumpelstiltskin

Often brooches etc. don't have full hallmarks as they are too small.

You have to look carefully through a magnifying glass, sometimes you will see Silver or Sterling.

Often silver will look slightly grey rather than shining bright metallic.

swingaloo

Thank you for the replies. I have some that is silver but it is French so it does not have the 925 marking. Its the stones in the brooches as well, some are just diamante but some of them have little red stones and others have what looks like a lump of amber or jet but I cant tell if its real or not and dont want to mis advertise either.

Grumpelstiltskin

Have a look at this for jet.

To tell jet from glass, you can

• Touch the material. Jet will take on a room temperature rather than a cold feel like glass.
• Scratch the material. Jet will not scratch glass, yet glass will scratch jet.
• Smell the material. When touched by a hot pin, jet produces a coal-like odor.
• Check the weight. If the beads feel heavy and cool to the touch, they are most likely glass. Jet is not cool to the touch, and is light in weight.