“Is silver plate basically the same as silver?”
Silver plating occurs when a tiny layer of silver is added to a different type of metal, normally during a process which is called electrolysis. Silver plated jewelery is therefore not the same as sterling silver jewelery which is made from silver with a purity of 92.5%. Silver plated jewelery often looks the same as silver jewelery, but is considerably cheaper. If you are allergic to any base metals, like nickel, beware that the plating can be too thin and you might still find your skin reacting to the base metal. Also the plating can often ware off revealing the base metal below, this can look very undesirable.