Question: Not sure if a find is silver ?
If you want to see if it's silver do this. Take a pot, add some water. Place a piece of tinfoil in it, and place the ring on the tinfoil. Bring the water to a boil then add baking soda. If it's silver it will sparkle. This is another way of cleaning your silver items that are heavily tarnished.
Another way to test if something is silver, use some saliva on the item and wrap it in tinfoil. Leave it for about twenty to thirty seconds, open it up and if it smells like rotten eggs then it's sliver. However, you may have something made out of another base metal which has been silvered. This too will smell like rotten eggs until all the "silver wash" has gone.
It is not recommended to clean your hammered coins so that they shine. If you do polish your hammered coins they will be devalued.