Black and silver show difference in tones more than other colors.
Few years ago I bought MB spray paint with the code my wagon had. Doing touch ups only - it did show that the paint had different tone and eventually I had to respray whole bumper.
Once the eye lost side-by side comparison, the difference become unnoticeable.
Then what is original paint condition on 20 yo car?

 

Black and silver show difference in tones more than other colors.
Few years ago I bought MB spray paint with the code my wagon had. Doing touch ups only - it did show that the paint had different tone and eventually I had to respray whole bumper.
Once the eye lost side-by side comparison, the difference become unnoticeable.
Then what is original paint condition on 20 yo car?

My paint is above average. In pictures of the donor vehicle, the paint on the entire car looks amazing as if it has been possibly repainted, who knows if they stayed true to 197 paint code. Vehicle is in a parts yard so no available history. Looks like I'll be taking a 4 hour round trip gamble. It would be a long putt to find a 197 color code W210 in this area inside of 6 months.

 

They are not the same.
If you can, find the 197 in your area and do a side to side comparison, to ease your conflict.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - your ride.

 

Less on cars, but I have more practice with house painting.
Human eye is lousy instrument and as I pointed above - once you loose direct comparison, you will not tell the slight difference. I also experienced that you will notice paint different tone on pictures, when bare eye will miss it.
Meaning slight different tone on bumper very likely will go unnoticed. Than you can buy black wax and try to cover slight difference.

 

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I've been on a lot of automotive forums and this is one of the best. No bs or attitude but straight & accurate information. With apologies to Los Bravos, I intended to post this earlier:

 

Yes you will see a difference. I work at mercedes collision and today i had both colors out in the sun. Sl63 and sd350. very noticable difference

 

OK, the bassist can’t hold a candle to the Los Bravos guy, but the lyrics here are a bit more relevant.