Junk Silver Vs Sterling Flatware

@sel_69l I live in the US, where there is no official assay office. I think what you mentioned may work in the UK and other countries with assay offices, but unfortunately, not in the US. Here, damaged sterling is pretty much scrap for the refiner. That said, maybe some manufacturers would purchase these as raw materials, but they'd be taking a risk. I think silversmiths would rather get sterling silver from a trusted distributor, or more likely, just use 999 silver and copper to get the desired 925 mixture, for quality control purposes. 999 silver has quite a bit of retail premium right now, so I think refiners can afford to pay a bit more to get the scrap silver.

There is a tradition of using silver coins to make flatware. American flatware started out as silver coins in colonial times, and continued through the 19th century. In the mid 19th century these pieces were marked COIN to distinguish them from sterling.

@thq I have a small collection of coin silver spoons. They are actually not always marked coin, so you'd have to discern whether it's coin silver based on the silversmith's marks. There are websites that can help you with it. Some people avoid buying coin silver, because they're afraid of inadvertently buying plated silver. But if you know your stuff, you can get some good deals. Also, coin silver has a somewhat negative connotation nowadays amongst the populace, because people think it's much inferior to sterling silver, which is not the case. Coin silver is generally 90%, but early silversmiths didn't always adhere to that. They basically used whatever material they could find, oftentimes old silver pieces from their patrons, since America didn't really have a silver mine back then. The British Isles had used sterling 925 silver for a long time, so that was considered quality to American customers. Also to clarify, the silversmiths didn't actually always melt down coins to make coin silver; they did have access to 90% silver and other old silver items. Coin silver was just the term applied to that type of silver items. Even though coin silver items are quite collectible, especially Southern coin silver (mostly destroyed in the Civil War), because they pre-date sterling items (with a not insignificant overlap in time), I still wish the silversmiths of old didn't have to melt down coins in those instances. For a modern (coin) collector, we'd much rather have the coin than a coin silver spoon or tea set.

Cheers!

@thq Wow, that's really cool that you actually use the silver pieces and eat with them. I'm too chicken to do that, in case I damage the item, LOL! How do you wash them after using them? By hand with soap and water? Hey, just one quick note about the safety and health risks of using silver tableware. While silver does have anti-bacterial properties, back in the day, they did use lead in silver solder, because they didn't know about the health risks associated with ingesting lead that we know now. That's also another reason why I don't eat with them, because a lot of the pieces I have are 100+ years old, when those types of knowledge were more lacking, unfortunately. I also wash my hands immediately after handling antique silver, like tea sets, etc.

Most of the larger refiners will pay 90% of the total silver value (i.e sterling weight * 0.925 * 0.9). If you are selling locally, you are just paying 10-20% as a middle-man fee. Most will offer cash/bullion or both as part of the settlement. Some offer higher rate with at certain troy ounces threshold. Watch out for tacked on fees.

I once put a silver salt spoon in a saltbox and left it there AllSeasons. It went WAY beyond tarnish, turning black and green with surface roughening. It could not be cleaned.

My favorite foreign silver is French Art Nouveau. The Minerva head stamp is the mark of purity, either 1 (950) or 2 (800) mark. Here's a typical 950 spoon.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2660624117...9SR46H7v7AYQ

I took a close look at the spoon display this morning. They have not been polished for a couple years. They're covered with rainbow toning, which some coin collectors find attractive. In a few hours it'll be gone and they'll be shiny again. Nothing makes a 1702 dognose spoon more unattractive than rainbow toning. It is uneven and reveals all the fingerprints. That spoon has been polished so many times over the last 300 years that its hallmarks are barely readable.

My mother used to polish all of her silver before its once-a-year appearance at Thanksgiving. It's a real chore for one meal.

i think talking about sterling flatware in a stacker community is generally a bad idea. I mean, why mess up a good thing?