Querulous Quandaries:

Phone rings

(me) J. Sampson Antiques...... How can I help you? 

(woman) Do you sell silver polish?

(me) Yes, I sell Maas and Pine Ola.  Both are really excellent. 

(woman ) Does it take off brown stains?

(me) Brown stains?  What kind of brown stains?

(woman) I don't know?  I've used everything I can lay hands on to clean it. All kinds of silver polish, never dull, semichorme,  I even used some real soft steel wool and comet. I was real careful. 

(woman) Its a real old silver tray. 

(me) How old and what do the brown stains look like?

(woman) Oh, its really old maybe 100 or 200 years old.  You know its funny when I clean it  its a really light pink and then it turns a dark brown in a few days. 

I sighhhh

(me)  Your tray is silver plate and you've scrubbed off the silver plate. You've taken it down to the copper base.  Its copper you see not brown. 

(woman) Really?? That's good isn't it? 

(me) Well, it was but now its ruined. AND you've likely scratched it so much that it couldn't be replated without buffing it down to a nub. 

(woman) THANKS A LOT!  I've ruined my tray.  And I thought I was trying to do something to help it look better. 

(me) Well, you could keep polishing it until it was all copper.

(woman) thanks for talking to me. 

(me) Thanks for calling. 

It likely was a nice older tray not worth much, silver or copper.  Be careful when you clean!