Silver plating gold in citric pickle

[Belle_Barer]

I left a piece of mixed metal jewelry (18k and.925) in the pickle for
a day and the gold was plated silver. Is this normal? I use citric
pickle and only copper tongs so I am surprised since I have never
seen this before. Does anyone know why this happened? It was an "old"
mix of pickle, as in, it desperately needed to be refreshed!

Thanks, Brooke
bellebrooke.net

[jbin1]

Electrolysis, by placing gold and silver in contact with each other in the pickle you create a battery. The silver dissolves into the solution as silver ions, those silver ions are then electroplated out onto the gold surface.

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts
mokume-gane.com