Gold and silver are the two commonly worn metals. Gold is costly whereas silver is cheaper and gets chosen because of its resemblance to White Gold.
The white gold has a greyish-white color, the silver also happens to have the same color. Therefore, we can say that silver is the cheapest alternative to white gold.
Silver is extracted from the earth’s crust in its true magnificent greyish-white color. White gold is developed by mixing pure gold with nickel, palladium, or silver. These metals give the ultra-soft pure gold greyish white color and strength.
Pure gold is soft, it can not be turned into jewelry. Therefore, to improve the strength it is mixed with harder metals.
Since most types of gold jewelry contain silver, it appears that silver is a hard metal. However, if we postpartum the silver jewelry, it contains a small amount of copper.
This makes it hard to conclude whether gold or silver is harder, right? Here’s what experts have to say about it;
Is Gold Softer than Silver?
Yes, pure gold is softer than silver. That’s the major reason why silver, together with some other metals, is often mixed with gold. Silver, being a harder metal, gives gold the strength that it requires to be turned into Jewelry.
Gold might be the softest
Gold and silver are both soft metals. However, one of them is a bit less soft compared to the other.
The more malleable metal is gold, silver is not as hard as copper or some other metal. The pure silver is softer but a bit harder than the pure gold.
Pure silver is that soft that it can not withstand daily abuse
Gold, due to its ultra-soft nature, is recognized as the world’s most malleable of all metals.
Pure silver is also too soft to withstand daily abuse. However, to withstand daily abuse pure silver has to go through a process as well.
Silver is soft enough to eat, it gets eaten as well
Silver and gold are probably the only two metals that can be eaten. These metals are soft enough to be eaten and digested.
Due to high prices, gold is rarely eaten. Whereas, silver is commonly coated on sweets, dry fruits, sugar balls, betel nuts, and cardamom and gets eaten as well.
Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh are the few countries where silver coating on sweets, dry fruits, sugar balls, betel nuts, and cardamom is pretty common.
hard to scratch this metal
If you have ever used silver jewelry in your life, you might already know how easily this metal gets scratched.
As per the experts, the softer metals get scratched more quickly than the harder ones. If silver was harder, it would not have been getting stretches that easily.
silver jewelry is also 100% pure silver
The silver is quite soft, therefore it is harder to turn into any shape. Like the other softer metal gold, silver jewelry is also not 100% silver. Read Is Gold Heavier Than Silver?
It contains a percentage of some hard metals as well. If silver would have been a hard metal, we might have never needed to mix it with the other metal to make jewelry. If this does not prove silver is a soft metal, what else would?
Here is a great video that explains the Mohs scale of hardness in more detail:
Conclusion
In brief, gold and silver are the two softest or most malleable metals. If we try to compare these two metals, the latter (silver)in the two options is a bit harder.
Despite being a bit stronger than gold, pure silver is softer enough that it can not be turned into jewelry. Therefore, it is also mixed with alloys to turn into a shape and make it durable enough to withstand daily abuse.