Silver value?
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Permalink Reply by Clair Alan Hardesty on -
Sterling is generally 92.5% silver by weight. Since you did not say what kind of ounces you used to weigh it, I will do both calculations. If it weight 46 Troy ounces then there is 42.44 Toz of pure silver or about $1490 at about $35 spot price. If you mean 46 avdp.ounces then it is really 42 Toz and 39 Toz of pure silver for a value of $1365. Typically sterling sells below spot but not too far if you find the right buyer. Of course since you only paid $29 for it you could probably get a good price at a pawn shop who might give you as little as half the silver value unless they like the item itself. A jeweler might also give you a very good return. If you are interested in a quick buck either option is good, both you and the buyer can make some good money.
Clair
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Permalink Reply by Buffalo on -
A word of caution here. Very few silver pieces like this, or vases, coffee and tea pots, even silver knives are solid silver, which makes it hard to know exactly what you have. Most are filled with other materials for weight, many of which are not magnetic so a magnet test doesn't always mean anything, and the silver itself is just a very thin layer. Some refiners will not accept pieces like these and some that do require all of the fillers, etc to be removed before sending it to them. Midwest Refineries is one who will accept it, if you look about halfway down their silver page here they talk about weighted silver items. It sounds like you got a great deal on it but I wouldn't count on it being a large amount of silver.
http://www.midwestrefineries.com/silver.htm
Just wanted to add I hope I'm wrong and if you or maybe a dealer in your area can do a specific gravity test and compare the results to what solid sterling should be, that might tell you without causing any damage to the piece.
The specific gravity for sterling is 10.36.
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Permalink Reply by Indentured Servant on -
Not being I expert I cannot dispute what you say but I've never heard of silver being marked as sterling that had its silver "layered" on. Silver plate, usually marked as such, always is "layered". Most sterling I've seen is simply 92.5% silver sheet that has been formed into something such as a candy dish or teapot. The other 7.5% is usually copper. This alloy is created to add durability and other features to the finished piece.
Specific gravity is a very good test to use. Here is a good demonstration on how to easily perform this test at home. A site I like to use for silver/gold coin and scrap values is here. Scroll to the bottom for the other calculators. You can enter any spot price, pick your unit of weight, quantity and fineness to get current value.
Sounds to me like Bruce made quite the score! I'll offer him $50 but only because that is all I have in my "Candy Dish" budget at the moment! :-)
Bill
Buffalo said:A word of caution here. Very few silver pieces like this, or vases, coffee and tea pots, even silver knives are solid silver, which makes it hard to know exactly what you have. Most are filled with other materials for weight, many of which are not magnetic so a magnet test doesn't always mean anything, and the silver itself is just a very thin layer. Some refiners will not accept pieces like these and some that do require all of the fillers, etc to be removed before sending it to them. Midwest Refineries is one who will accept it, if you look about halfway down their silver page here they talk about weighted silver items. It sounds like you got a great deal on it but I wouldn't count on it being a large amount of silver.
http://www.midwestrefineries.com/silver.htm
Just wanted to add I hope I'm wrong and if you or maybe a dealer in your area can do a specific gravity test and compare the results to what solid sterling should be, that might tell you without causing any damage to the piece.
The specific gravity for sterling is 10.36.
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Permalink Reply by Buffalo on
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I'm certainly no expert on this either, which is why I thought a specific gravity test that could maybe confirm what it is would be a good idea. I guess about a year and a half ago I tried to do some research in this area with the idea of accumulating sterling silver for the silver content. Some of the info I found said that markings and silver content can vary, and that pieces marked sterling can be as low as 80% silver. Apparently a distinction existed between pieces marked "sterling" and others marked ".925 sterling". I also read accounts of pieces that were just marked sterling but still had weighting materials in the bases or other areas. Anyways, not meaning to be negative.
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