Real silver vs. sterling silver, p.3

A. Hi Steve. Yes, it's possible.

Regards,

A. Hi Lisa. It's probably not the silver that is different but the coating on the silver. Silver is very prone to tarnishing and many manufacturers, in an effort to forestall tarnishing, treat it in one way or another. One fairly common treatment is a thin flash of rhodium plating, and I would suspect that this was done on the bright necklace. Other possible treatments include a dip in a preservative, or a clear coating.

Also, remember that 92.5% silver contains 7.5% something else, and the color and other properties may vary slightly depending on what that 7.5% is.

Regards,

A. Hi Jerry.

Your choices are to take it to someone who can do that for you, or to try to evaluate it yourself. An antiques dealer may find that it has collector's value, although the odds seem to be about 1000 to 1 against you. Alternately, you can get to a library and see if any of the antiques guides start leading you anywhere; but to spend days of study against very long odds may not appeal to you.

If the tray has no collector's value, then you can take it to a precious scrap dealer ... "We buy gold" signs are on almost every city street corner these days. If you want to test it yourself before you do that, look for the threads about "testing silver" -- but you are back in the position of having to spend a lot of time learning a subject for the evaluation of one single item which almost surely has no value. Good luck.

Regards,

A. Hi Stacey. If they say "sterling", that's what they are (omitting the possibility of counterfeiting).

Regards,

A. Hi Greg. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but there is no silver in "German Silver", which is is "60-70 percent copper, 20 nickel, and some zinc and maybe tin and lead" (see Paul Tibbals in letter 3616). Likewise, no silver in "Nickel Silver", which is "55-72% copper, 10-18% nickel, and 10-27% zinc" (see Lee Gearhardt in letter 22524). The names come from the fact that these alloys are strong and look like silver, so they are a good base for silver plated flatware.

Regards,

A. Hi Dan. I have personally never heard such an abbreviation for silver; every time I've seen "SS" it meant stainless steel. Sorry.

"There ain't no Coupe de Ville hiding at the bottom of a Cracker Jack box" -- Meatloaf

Regards,

A. Hi Maggie. Here in the USA, there are shops on every other city street corner proclaiming "we buy gold". I don't know exactly where to find them in your area of Ireland. Sorry, but I don't think there is a way anybody here can help you except to tell you to find such a shop to test it. My wild guess is that it's tin, and the cover and straw are pewter. Good luck.

It's an unusual looking item though, so I hope you don't melt it down for scrap.

Regards,

Q. I have a 14K Gold Claddagh ring with a GO and a c in a circle on it. What does that mean?

A. Despite repeatedly posting that you're not a hallmark identifying site, people continue to post questions about unknown markings. So, I thought I'd help you out with a couple I've seen questioned in this thread. The letters,
"I S", usually with a stamped box around each letter, stand for, Inlaid Silver. "SS", stands for, Sterling Silver. Have a nice day.

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Thanks Karleen!

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Hi Betsy. They made both. So if it doesn't say 'Sterling', I doubt that anyone can tell you from just the brand name.

Sorry, your photo is way out of focus, but it this thing silver colored or copper colored? If you see any copper color anywhere, it is surely not Sterling, and the lack of a "Sterling" or "950" mark is a very good indication that it's only silverplate.

Regards,

A. So-called Peruvian silver is supposed to be 95% silver, or 950 Fine, an sterling is supposed to be 92.5%, or 925 Fine.

The difference in silver value of the 2 isn't much. At the $17.30 silver price today, a troy ounce of sterling, at 92.5%, is worth $16.00 and a troy ounce of Peruvian silver, at 95%, is worth $16.44. A troy ounce could make, on average, maybe 3 to 5 rings. So, the metal in silver jewelry is very little, no matter what kind of silver you use. The value is in the workmanship.

The jeweler could easily make a troy ounce of so-called Peruvian Silver by simply melting together 20.7 grams of sterling with 10.4 grams of pure silver.

In most all cases, the remaining percentages of 7.5% for sterling and 5% for the Peruvian silver, that are not silver, are copper.

This whole thing is similar to Black Hills gold and Welsh gold. As I understand it, in the Black Hills of SD, some of the natural gold that was found contained impurities that gave it a green or pink (or red) color. They made jewelry from it, using yellow gold along with green gold for grape leaves and pink gold for grapes. Nowadays, it's a big business up there, but the pink is artificially made by adding a lot of copper and a little silver to yellow gold. The green gold is made by adding a lot of silver and a little copper to yellow gold.

Q. I bought a piece of silver which is marked made in Peru with a makers signature. I cannot find any information on hallmarks from Peru, anyone have any information that might help me?

  Hi Susan. We have many threads on this site which deteriorated into endless strings of unanswered questions about hallmarks; thread 29370 is a pressing example. If you have any knowledge of the topic at all, the whole world is waiting for your help and would appreciate it!

Regards,

A. Hi Fernando. I don't know which "Steve" you were trying to reach. James Steven from Cancun? His posting was from 11 years ago; sorry, but I doubt that he'll see your inquiry in a timely fashion :-(

Regards,

A. Hi Kelly. The "6" could be anything: model number, size, weight, revision number, casting label. Google and eBay gave me no leads of Schrook or Schrock and it could be the baby's nickname or last name. The 'value' of the cup is only the intrinsic value of the silver. Every town has numerous "We Buy Gold" stores who will weigh the cup and offer you its metal value. Some cups might be weighted and must be destroyed before anyone will offer you the silver value though.

My suggestion would be to either enjoy the cup or sell it for its silver value. Attics everywhere are full of silver of this sort which no one wants, and the chance of it being worth anything beyond metal value is about the same as a discarded lottery ticket being a big winner :-)

Trying to determine the history of items like this is a big project and only cherished family heirlooms deserve the effort :-)
Good luck.

Regards,

A. Thanks for the kindness, Brett. Yes, we make the world just a smidgeon better when we try to be patient :-)

Regards,