Adventures Selling Sterling

I forgot about the coin silver buyers. Some people see a stamp COIN SILVER and they freak out. It's still silver. In my opinion the big price jump would be by who made it not the coin silver mark. I've scrapped my share of coin silver utensils.

Back in 2008, I sold a silver repousse coin silver creamer made by Andrew Ellicot Warner circa 1820. He and his father were silversmiths from Maryland. It was sold at Skinners Auction in Boston. I don't remember what the piece weighed (I think around 4 ounces) but it sold for 1900 dollars. What was silver in 08? About 15 dollars per ounce. That was a huge markup over silver value. After the auction house took their share I was left with 1501 dollars. I found the creamer during a friends house clean out so we split the final auction value. Not bad for free. It only cost my knowledge. I could have snookered him out of the creamer and bought it for scrap and he would have never known. But if you start scr*wing your friends, all you'll have left are enemies.

Indeed so. This is an important lesson for anyone who wants to be successful in business and it is all too often over-looked.

Not sure how much you know about coin silver items so I'll start with the basics. There was a time when many silversmiths relied on silver coins as their raw material. Items made from coins are referred to as coin silver. The only items I have found in my area that can be identified as coin silver have been forks & spoons, with the vast majority being spoons. I'd like to find something like a creamer, cup, coffee/tea pot, or decorative item.

There's the problem with having an American viewpoint as opposed to being more world oriented. I should have pointed out that coin silver is generally a term applied to items made by American silversmith's. I think it was in the late 1800's when American silversmiths shifted to sterling, mainly due to the fact that coin silver(90%) was considered inferior to european items that were sterling(92.5%)