As far as telling nickel from silver, nickel should react with sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, but silver will not,
But just visually they don't look like silver, silver tarnishes, turning yellowish or purplish, but acids cheap(ish) and stores decently well, so for about $20 you can buy a gallon of muriatic acid at your local home improvement store or battery acid at the auto parts store, and be able to test base metal vs silver for alteast the next 6 months with proper storage,
(Note that hcl won't react with copper metal, but will react with copper oxide, so if coppers involved everything gets more complicated, chemistry is a slippery slope like that)
_________________ Representin otown, central FL
|