Finding The Best Mexican Silver Jewelry

Editor: aikencoins

Knowing how to identify authentic versus counterfeited mexican silver jewelry can lead to a fun and profitable hobby.

Collecting Mexican silver jewelry can be a fun and rewarding hobby with a little patience and proper knowledge of Mexican silver marks. The first thing to know is many of the highly collected pieces are often counterfeited, so be careful.

Most of the silver marks are weakly punched and very hard to read, which causes much confusion among collectors. Be sure to keep a card catalogue of any unknown marks that you encounter for future reference. Learn to identify the various period marks and artisan styles.

A very handy reference work used by most collectors is The Little Book of Mexican Silver Trade and Hallmarks, by Bille Hougart. Bille covers most of the basic identification and the most frequently encountered marks on Mexican Silver. This is a small paperback book that will easily fit in most glove compartments, so it is always available.

Keep a small 10x-14x power loop or magnifying glass with you until you learn the look and feel of Mexican silver. Once you have mastered the basics you will no longer need to see the marks to know that the piece is in fact Mexican silver.

Mexican silver jewelry is readily available across the United States since most tourists to Mexico purchase several pieces to keep as mementos of their vacations in Mexico. A recent trip to a local flea market yielded several nice pieces, including a lovely pair of cut silver and turquoise button earrings from Guadalajara by ALC, a pair of dangle silver and turquoise earrings from Taxco Mexico, and several other pieces of vintage silver.

Mexican silver jewelry smiths often created artistic pieces with whimsical animals, native designs and other unique patterns. One thing that is common throughout the jewelry is a high quality of workmanship and unique talent.

Cuff bracelets are often found with southwestern and animal designs inlaid with turquoise and other natural stones. Link bracelets are mostly found in very heavy wide link, geometric designs. Mexican silver earrings will range from screw type and clip on to pierced ear styles, often times being created from thin sheets of silver to allow for a larger design without the weight of solid silver. This type is often referred to as puffed or hollow silver by collectors.

Eric Murphey, owner of aikencoins

Categories: Ethnic and Regional | Hobbies | Collecting | Shopping | Jewelry