People who know stuff about Silver

[Thunderscreech]

I have two sterling silver bracelets. I've worn one for years, but, recently, I found one i thought I'd lost, so I decided to start wearing it, and after a few months or so, a rash pops up.

So I take them both off for a while, and rash goes away. People say 'you're allergic to silver" and I'm like, "no, because I wore the other one and was fine."

So I put the other one back on. No rash. The second bracelet (a chain, the other is a band) seems to be causing it, but how?

The band says "Nobska Sterling" and "39 LM" (I think 39 LM is the size). The chain says "925 Italy" on it. Is there some difference between the two, or did the chain one have some cleaning remnant on the surface which got cleaned off today when I cleaned it?

[HeavyDuty]

I think most skin problems with silver jewelry is from the nickel content in the alloy, but I could be wrong.

[jonathan_matos5]

there should me a marking stating in karats the purity of the silver. if you are allergic to silver the rash would be caused by a bracelet with i higher percentage of silver in the alloy. if you are allergic to some other metal in the alloy then your rash is caused by the bracelet with less silver in the alloy.

i cannot wear silver because the oils in my skin accelerate the rate that the silver oxidizes and the silver also gets absorbed into my skin.

edit: the sterling silver is lower purity if the sterling silver is the one that is causing the rash it could be an allergic reaction to the copper zinc nickel or whatever other semi-precious metal might be in the mix.

[tplyons]

IIRC, all sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver. If the band, marked sterling is accurate, that's what it is. Same with the 925 marking, which denotes sterling silver.

Perhaps you ARE allergic to silver, and the band simply had some sort of lacquer.

I see no other reason that you would be allergic to one and not the other, unless one is simply mislabeled, or improperly labeled.