Anyone Know Japanese Hallmarks Here? Bear With A T Inside Silverplate?

to the Community, Wheezysworld!

@Bertensgrad Older thread, but just in case this is still helpful. The vase you have is most likely silver-plated. Japanese silver is oftentimes marked sterling and/or 950 for 95% silver, which is a little different from the standard 92.5% sterling in the British Isles and America. The font they use is also somewhat identifiable. Older Japanese silver is marked differently and marked in Japanese (sometimes in kanji). For more recent pieces, if it's not marked sterling or 950, or some other mark indicating silver content, it is most likely silver-plated, unfortunately, which isn't worth much. But the most reliable way to be sure is to get it tested. You can take it to a jeweler if you're not sure how to do it yourself, but normally, it involves cutting/filing a nick into an inconspicuous spot, and testing that with an acid solution, which will give off different colors based on silver content. If you choose to do that with nitric acid, please be careful; I would recommend leaving that to a professional. Some jewelers also have an XRF machine (X-Ray), which can test the silver content (and other elemental content) non-intrusively.

@thq Weighted knives and vases are not worthless at all, if they are sterling. While it's true the knife handles and vase bases are oftentimes filled (not all the time), the rest is still sterling silver and has value. A typical sterling knife handle contains anywhere between 10-20 grams of sterling silver. For vases, it really depends on how big the base is and how much filler (usually cement or resin) is in it. That said, it is usually more difficult to sell weighted pieces, because people don't know how much of it is silver and how much of it is filler, as the filler is encased and not visible to the eye. Hence, on ebay and other platforms, weighted pieces do sell for a lot less, due to this risk. But for folks who are good at guessing the weight, based on shape and knowledge of other similar pieces, this can be quite profitable. But then again, those buyers typically destroy the piece by taking out the filler and flatten it for easier/cheaper shipping. Not something that I do, but it can work for some people. Anyway, that's probably more than people wanted to know, but thought I'd share, anyways.

Cheers!

@thq Yes, agreed that the items would have to be destroyed to extract the silver. But I am surprised that you were only able to get 5 grams of silver from a vase, which makes me suspect silver-plated, if you chemically extracted the silver. For a weighted vase, the filler is almost always in the base; everything above the base should be all sterling. For most dinner knives, yes, the blade is almost invariably stainless steel, so that you can cut through a steak with it. Also, the handle can be filled or hollow (more rare). They fill it to help balance the knife, but of course if they used enough silver in the handle, they wouldn't have to fill it to balance it. To be honest, I also avoid buying anything that's weighted, just because it's hard to assess exactly how much silver is actually in the item.

EDIT: If you were maybe referring to a candlestick, then it's possible that it has less silver, because they could've filled the whole thing with cement, and just put a thin layer of silver around it. Most modern candlesticks are weighted, presumably to avoid liability, in case it tips over and burns down everything. Older candlesticks were actually hollow, especially continental silver (like German silver), although some English ones do still have weighted bases.